Black Widow
by SchwarzLilien
Summary: Her eyes met a pair of emerald orbs staring at her penetratingly. She didn't expect that moment to drag her into a maze without exit.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N.:** Just so you can get a better idea of what was going on in the Naruto world: the story starts two months after the Chūnin exams, way before Shippūden.

* * *

The rain poured down over the two cloaked figures as they walked silently through the forest. The little sunlight that managed to filter through the clouds was slowly fading, it wouldn't be long before the night arrived and the temperature dropped even more.

This is why Hidan loathed winter with a passion. He started cursing under his breath. As if, it wasn't bad enough to be trapped with the greedy little bastard beside him. If he didn't know him any better, he'd say Kakuzu would make them both sleep under the rain just to avoid "unnecessary expenses".

Just as the silver haired man was about to start complaining, the voice of his partner broke the silence. "There is an Inn at the outer of the Land of Waves. We will spend the night there."

This was a surprising relief for Hidan. His lips turned quickly into his usual mocking smirk. "Now that's unusual coming from you, Kakuzu. What made you have a change of heart?"

The emerald-eyed Akatsuki glared at his partner. Couldn't he stay quiet, at least for once? It really got into the masked man's nerves, how his partner always had any sort of comment or stupid remark… He swore to himself, that when everything was over he would kill the jashinist with his own hands.

"Our customer will be paying for everything, and he will not be expecting us until tomorrow morning."

Hidan simply stared at him, with an "I knew it" expression on his face. If the bill were on them, Kakuzu would have left him sleep in the very place they stood.

"Besides" Kakuzu added. "It would be annoying to have to deal with you tomorrow if you catch a cold in here, stupid kid."

"Shut up, you piece of shit..."

Kakuzu merely ignored the silver haired man. The more time they spent together, the more they both started acting like ten year olds.

Hidan turned away and let out an annoyed sigh, recalling why they were heading towards the Land of Waves. It had been the same since he had joined the organization about a year back: Traveling here and there, doing jobs for a bunch of rich weaklings and idiots; which were all about killing someone who had gotten in their way, being hired from time to time by some of the Hidden Villages, and listening to Kakuzu talking about how much they depend on the money and how they couldn't go to catch down the Jinchūrikis until the leader had all the preparations done. Hidan still found it bothersome, though he started getting used to it.

However, this was the first time that, not only he didn't understand the petition they received, but he also didn't get why Kakuzu accepted it. Who the hell would hire S-ranked criminals for private protection? It seemed idiotic to him. It would take away a lot of their time they could be using for anything else, even other missions. He looked at his partner again. Why was he paired with this fucker in the first place? Even if their abilities made them a perfect match, it wasn't as if they cooperated much with each other. In fact, they both refused to do so most of the time. He would have been better off alone than with this freak of nature.

The jashinist's thoughts were interrupted as they both arrived and the Inn. It was larger that he expected: A two-story building with a small restaurant on the first floor, and what seemed to be a couple of hot springs on the back. He wondered how busy the place was.

Kakuzu approached the receptionist and asked for two single rooms. The shinobis were handed their keys and led upstairs. Before entering his room, the elder Akatsuki turned to his partner.

"We will leave at six. You better not oversleep."

/

Her lips sipped delicately from the cup of wine, not taking the eyes off the companion in front of her. The man smiled as he watched her. "You still haven't told me your name."

She put the cup down and licked off any trace of wine from her lips. "Now, I don't think you wanted to know my name when you offered me a drink".

The man was somewhat taken aback by the bluntness of her reply, but regained his composure immediately. This girl obviously didn't beat around the bush, not that he minded. After all, it would simply make things easier for him.

"Well, could I ask how come a pretty little thing like you was drinking by her at a place like this? It is rare to see a girl like you around here."

"A girl, you say?" She asked with an innocent, perhaps somewhat childish voice, "It's sad to know that I cause that impression on you." With every word, her voice turned into a more seductive tone. "Perhaps, I could... convince you of how much of a woman I am in a more... private place."

Her lips curved, giving him a suggestive smile.

The somewhat-drunk man smirked. He let his eyes shamelessly trace the girl's curvy figure; her exposed cleavage slightly covered by chocolate wavy hair, and then looked up to find her hazel eyes looking at him.

"And what is this lovely lady looking for in exchange?"

"A roof for the night would be more than enough" She replied with a smile.

He didn't need any more motivation after listening to that. He paid the bill and took her hand, leading her into the night.

/

Kakuzu and Hidan walked through the Great Naruto Bridge. The path to the Land of Waves seemed strangely quiet, but the masked shinobi didn't expect to see much activity after the latest attacks it had received.

"The name of our customer is Tenzen Daikoku. He is a politician, one of the Damiyō's aids. It seems that some of his associates have disappeared, and some others were found dead at their homes." Kakuzu explained. "Luckily for us, he is a complete paranoid, and since he is willing to pay a considerate quantity for our services we will stay with him for a couple of days. We'll get the details when we arrive."

"Wait." Hidan interrupted. "If he's a politician, why are we being hired by him privately instead of being hired by the Land of Waves? Is there any reason for that?"

"Daikoku is also a crime boss. The associates we're talking about aren't precisely from the government. He wants to be as discrete as possible."

The silver haired man could already imagine how that "crime boss" looked like. He was definitely one of those pathetic shits that had a lot of money, but could not survive a day on his own. Hidan smirked at the thought.

Kakuzu looked at their destination quietly. The Land of Waves was a neutral zone; there weren't any Hidden Villages in it. Even if it had always been known for its strong shipping industry, there wasn't really a reason for anyone to be very interested on taking control of it.

Kakuzu's emerald eyes stared into space.

Some of Daikoku's missing comrades were listed in his bingo book, but nobody retrieved the money of their bounties. "Such a waste..." muttered the shinobi under his breath. Millions and millions of ryō lost. What bothered him the most was the speed with which they were gone: they were all seen just the day before, and did not seem disturbed in the slightest. Whoever it was behind it all, they worked fast, and probably didn't give any warnings before attacking. They could become a problem for Akatsuki in the future if they kept interfering between him and his preys.

The shinobis arrived at last to Daikoku's castle. At the entrance, a guard was already waiting for them. He greeted them, observably intimidated by the Akatsuki members. Then they were led inside, where they met their contractor. For Hidan's amusement, the man was just as he had imagined him.

One of Daikoku's bodyguards started repeating every single piece of information Kakuzu already knew about the situation. He stopped listening and started to scan the room with his eyes. Another bodyguard was standing behind the couch Daikoku was placed. What caught his attention was the fact that, even if he was clearly not a ninja, he was firmly holding a gigantic blade, which Kakuzu recognized as Zabuza Momochi's sword: Kubikiribōchō.

So it was true that this Daikoku idiot conceited himself with Zabuza's death... Kakuzu gave a half smirk under his mask. "Like a boy who claims to be a hunter, just for finding a dead lion's fangs." he thought. No wonder why he was a politician.

"Since we contacted you, we found more information about the victims" said the guard.

Kakuzu turned his eyes to him.

"The bodies that were found have gone through autopsy. No unusual substances were found, so poisoning has been discarded. It was confirmed that not only the victims didn't struggle against their attacker, but they did not have a single scratch on their bodies." Said the guard, with a serious expression. "It's like the chakra in their bodies stopped flowing all of a sudden."

The masked shinobi frowned. Even if a chakra absorption technique were used, the victims would feel it, and, therefore, defend themselves.

"I already have a hundred men at my disposition to guard the castle" spoke Daikoku. "What I want you to do first is to search for as many information as possible for the improvement of your work. When all information possible has been collected, I will have one of you as my personal bodyguard, while the other will get rid of the responsible for all of this. When I am no longer threatened, you will receive your full pay."

Hidan suppressed a snort. If this idiot kept up with his bossy attitude, he would definitely be threatened. Kakuzu seemed to notice the jashinist's annoyance and shot him a warning glare. He perfectly knew how easily the kid fucked things up with his impulsiveness.

"Two rooms have been prepared for you. While you do your research you are free to either use them or stay anywhere in the island, as long as you send a daily report of your situation. We will reply to confirm my well-being.," added Daikoku.

Both shinobis nodded.

"Understood. If there isn't anything else, we'd like to begin our search right away." Said the elder Akatsuki. His emerald eyes pierced right into the bearded man in front of him.

A slightly disturbed Daikoku stared back. "Yes, that is all. You may go, just don't forget about the report."

The Zombie Duo walked out if the castle and headed towards the town.


	2. Chapter 2

Dry leaves crushed under their feet. The air was cool, but fortunately for Hidan, there was no breeze. Though it was an island, it wasn't a very warm place. The shinobi looked up at the cloudy sky, wondering if it snowed in there at this time of the year. His violet eyes then landed on the man beside him. Kakuzu was by far the most puzzling person he had ever met. Not to mention frustrating. He remembered when he first met him: He even looked like a civil person, but as they became more familiar with each other, the hate grew stronger too. Moreover, how could he not hate that old man? Money seemed like the only thing that had any value for him, he had absolutely no patience, and was an arrogant, miserly, bastard. But what Hidan hated about him over all was his damn lack of respect for Jashin; it was nearly impossible to have a single ritual without being interrupted by his mockery. The shinobi could perfectly recall the first time he did a ritual in front of his partner, or at least tried. As Hidan laid on the floor, with his spear right through his torso, Kakuzu suddenly interrupted by grabbing him by the hair and dragging him through the floor, leaving a flood of blood behind them as the elder Akatsuki swore and muttered something about time and gold. Remembering such unnecessary amount of pain made Hidan grit his teeth. He hated the guy's guts with a passion.

Kakuzu could feel his partner's glare as if he was trying to drill through his soul. His stupid God would know what had gotten into him. The masked man tried ignoring him, but after the first fifteen minutes, he decided it wasn't worth it and glared back at the jashinist.

"What?"

Hidan realized then that he had been staring for too long… His mouth twitched in annoyance.

"I don't care how much money that son of a bitch is paying us. Why the fuck did you agree to do this in the first place?" protested the silver haired man. "If it's for the lost bounty money, we could have simply looked for information by ourselves. Is it really worth it to deal with that dumbfuck for long? In that case can't we just kill the bitch and take everything we can?"

Kakuzu felt the sudden urge to hit his partner. Hard.

"We are going to use him as bait, you fucking idiot. We need to get rid of that plague before it keeps burning our money, and for what we know, there's a chance that it may come to the castle to murder that pseudo-yakuza. We can't lose any chances, so you better not screw it up."

The emerald-eyed shinobi waited for the albino to start yelling back, but all he received was an annoyed huff. It was surprising to see Hidan suppressing any kind of impulse, but since they accepted the mission, he had been demonstrating an unusual increase in his self-control. Kakuzu wondered what had happened.

"Where do we start, then?"

Kakuzu looked away from his partner.

"The latest victim's house, it's about three miles from here."

/

When she opened her eyes, she could not recognize the ceiling above her. She laid still on the bed for a couple of minutes, eyes staring into space.

Her hands grasped the white sheets underneath her, examining the soft texture. For a while, she wished she could simply lay there forever: she was refreshed, comfortable, and well rested.

She looked at her side and found a figure with messy black hair. She smiled to herself, recalling what had happened last night. Her stomach growled, and her grin grew even bigger. She was feeling great. After stretching every single part of her body, she jumped out of the bed. She looked at the clock: she still had plenty of time before she had to leave. Her stomach growled again, and she decided she did feel like having breakfast this morning. After all, she hadn't eaten anything in weeks.

/

The place was deserted when the Akatsuki arrived. Hidan had expected to see a curious person around, or maybe someone of the police department, but as the entered the place, he realized there was a protection seal around it, probably placed by the police to avoid unwanted visitors to steal anything from the crime scene. He had to admit, they were rather skilled for a country with no ninjas.

It was a decent sized house, with detailed decorations all over the walls. The shinobis walked through the different rooms. As Hidan looked inattentively through the pictures on the walls, Kakuzu opened every drawer and door he could find. There weren't any jewels or cash at sight, but many larger, valuable objects were left behind. Kakuzu found himself confused: Whoever killed the owner of the house was stealthy enough not to leave a trace of their presence (he couldn't find a single fingerprint anywhere) but didn't take advantage of their situation. They didn't retrieve the money of the bodies either. Perhaps what they were after wasn't money at all.

Did they intend to take over the territory by getting rid of the powerful people in the zone? Unlikely. With the actual tension between the countries, it would be for sure a war detonator, and no Land was in the adequate conditions to declare war at the moment.

Terrorists, perhaps? The masked man thought a terrorist group would make louder actions, but he was running out of ideas.

How annoying. He hated to struggle with people that had no sense in their actions.

There had been four victims by now; one of them was a rich, retired shinobi with connections to different crime organizations. His head was valued with a 30 million ryō bounty.

The other three were either crime bosses or their aids. However, they had other strong shinobis at their disposition, who had disappeared (another 30 million ryō bounty vanished with one of their bodies). He couldn't even say they were all from the same location: even if they were all connected to Tenzen Daikoku in a way, they weren't all from the Land of Waves. Three out of four murders happened in the Land of Water, but the Mizukage dropped the investigation because they had n o tracks to be followed. Since then, the security in the Land of Water had increased considerably.

The only connection Kakuzu could find between the victims was money and power, but the actions of the attacker didn't say much about an interest in either.

By now, Kakuzu's only hope was to use Daikoku as lure.

The shinobis left everything in place and walked out of the building.

/

She was feeling quite happy today. Perhaps it was because of the lavender tea she was drinking. Or the fact that everything had gone even better than expected. While she was sitting down at the kitchen table, she looked around the big, one-story house: It didn't look like a very luxurious place at first sight, there was barely any decoration and the furniture had simple designs, but when she looked closer, she could notice the quality of their materials. She didn't know much about those things, but she was sure they were expensive. Instead of paintings, the house had large, picture windows that had a beautiful view of the garden.

When she drank the last sip of tea, she took the cup with both her hands, closing her eyes. She built up a large quantity of fire chakra inside of her, concentrating in on the fingertips. She was already used to the process and knew it could be painful at first, but she didn't mind it at all. She watched the cup that was starting melt on her hands, and let the elemental chakra extend itself over her whole hands. After the cup had fully melted; she kept it in her hands until it cooled. Now she just had a white, ceramic stone in her hands. She threw it into the pond she had found on the garden the night before. No one would pay attention to a small decoration stone anyway. She entered the house and looked at the clock again: last night, the owner of the house had told her the maids would arrive at noon, so she had to be out of the house by then. It was only 10 o'clock. There was still some time for her to finish.

She closed her eyes and let her nose do its work. She detected the chakra traces left in the house and started meticulously dissipating every single one of them, following the chakra tracks with her hands.

Little she knew about the companion that had been watching her inside the house, and since she was concentrated on her work and as carefree as ever after a successful night, she did not notice the small boy who sneaked into his father's room while she was drinking tea and tried desperately to wake his father up. She did not notice either, when the boy sneaked thought the back door and ran away as fast as he could.


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N.: **When I uploaded this chapter I didn't realize how many spelling mistakes and nonsense it had. I think I corrected it all, but if you find anything, please let me know (:

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/

The Akatsuki walked through the town: nothing seemed to be unusual, except for a small crowd that was starting to form out of a small restaurant. Quick and unintelligible whispers, followed by gasps and snickers filled the air. Hidan looked at them irritated.

He noticed a man walking out of the group towards their direction. Before the man could pass beside them, the jashinist stopped him by grabbing his shirt.

"Hey!..." Before the man could finish his protest, he froze as he met a pair violet eyes staring at him coldly. Meanwhile, Kakuzu glanced at the small crowd. Inside the restaurant, he could see an elderly woman consoling a crying child.

"What the fuck is going on in there?" asked the younger shinobi to the man.

The man stuttered a little, until he could get a grip on himself.

"J-Just rumors, sir. It's merely morbid gossiping about… well, the murders…"

"Murders?" repeated Kakuzu to clarify what he just heard.

"Kirigakure's Head Ninja, sir" said the frightened man. "He spent his vacations here with his son... It seem like he was murdered last night."

Kakuzu gritted his teeth. Another 40 million ryō were lost.

Arashi Ringo, murdered in his sleep? The masked shinobi had met the ninja of the mist before: He was a medium-sized man with pitch-black hair, and the characteristic eye color of the Ringo clan. He must have been in his mid-twenties back then. He may not have been strong enough to belong to the Seven Swordsmen of the Midst, along with his younger sister; Ameyuri, but he was still THE Head Ninja of Kirigakure. Arashi was short tempered and impulsive, and had an awful moral reputation... However, he wasn't a shinobi that let his guard down. Ever. He must have been sure that there was no danger around, or not been able to defend himself, just like the other men killed.

Hidan was getting impatient with the man's nervousness and yelled at him for more details.

This simply made the man start stuttering again.

"The bar owner said he left with a woman last night, but he can't remember anything about her, not even what she looked like." Squeaked the desperate man. "Then the boy said a woman killed him... she spent the night with Ringo, and in the morning he was dead."

The man could barely place his words in the right order; moving his eyes from the silver-haired man, to the scythe on his back, to Kakuzu, as if he didn't know where was it less dangerous to look at.

Kakuzu felt his blood boiling up. Whom did he think he was kidding? He couldn't think of anyone, man or woman, that could simply show up anywhere alone and kill these kinds of ninjas with ease.

"What boy?" growled Hidan, before the elder Akatsuki could snap at the man.

"The boy!" He said, pointing to the restaurant. "The boy saw it all! He escaped!"

The jashinist threw the man to the ground and turned around. As the Akatsuki came closer the entrance, they could hear the crowd still mumbling and whispering, some of them even snickering from time to time, but the only words they could make out from the conversation were "Black Widow".

Kakuzu rolled his eyes. Were they seriously already giving a pseudonym to the woman? These sorts of things reminded him how stupid humanity could be.

The shinobis approached the crying boy.

The old woman beside him glanced at the Akatsuki with distrust.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen but we are closed at the moment" said the woman, looking at the men's headbands.

"We have some questions for the kid," Kakuzu said as calmly as he could. The woman frowned.

"You can ask anything you like to the people outside. The poor boy is very altered."

"We've been sent to capture the culprit of your father's death," said Kakuzu to the boy, ignoring the old woman.

The boy looked up to the men in front of him with his eyes still filled with tears. Kakuzu stared back, examining the boy. He was probably around seven years old. With his face uncovered by his hands, the masked shinobi could confirm the boy was a Ringo: he had his father's eyes. "You have to tell us what you know".

"The police will be here in about an hour" interrupted the woman, glaring at the masked man. "Your help won't be necessary"

"God damnit, we don't have your time!" spat Hidan to the woman

"Nowaki-kun is not able to answer your questions. Please leave now," replied the woman firmly.

"How did you get away, kid?" Kakuzu asked, olimpically ignoring the elderly woman. Nowaki stared at him, and then at the jashinist. He spoke with a barely audible voice." You are... Ninjas… too… right?"

Kakuzu nodded.

Jumping out of the woman's arms, the boy stood up and tugged the masked shinobi's cloak firmly.

"Help me!" pleaded the boy with tear-filled eyes. Both of the shinobis were surprised by his reaction. "She must still be in the house! You have to do something, please!"

Kakuzu's ears buzzed: this was their chance. "Where?" The boy was taken aback by the emerald-eyed man's sudden aggressiveness.

"Answer me, kid!" roared Kakuzu.

"West" snapped the old woman, wrapping her arms around Nowaki protectively. "Out of town, about a mile away from here".

Before they could blink, the shinobis were gone.

/

There had been much more traces of chakra that she expected, but she still finished before noon.

She had gone back to the main bedroom and taken as many jewels as she could find, along with the cash that old man had left in his pockets. A photograph fell from the Ringo shinobi's wallet. When she picked it up, she unwittingly curved her lips into a mocking smirk: The photograph portrayed the man that lied dead on the bed, smiling with a young boy and a woman.

"Well" she said, turning to the corpse. "I guess she probably left you, and I don't blame her."

She didn't need to get rid of the corpse; it would be bothersome. She had done it before, but then she got tired of hiding rotting bodies for nothing. After all, it wasn't as if nobody was going to look for them, and it was a pain in the ass to have someone trying to follow her track.

She looked at the clock in the wall: she STILL had time left before anyone arrived to the house. In fact, she had about 45 minutes to look around and maybe take some souvenirs. She approached the large bookshelf in the living room, and looked through the vast collection it held. Her eyes traveled quickly through the titles, in the hope of finding something worth taking with her. They stopped abruptly over an elegant leather-covered book. She was so fascinated to see such an old edition of such a work of art, that she could barely raise her hand to take it.

She sat down, placing the book on her lap, as her hand traveled over the golden letters engraved in the cover: _Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire_.

She was almost jumping with joy after making such a discovery for her collection. She had been looking for an edition like this one for ages.

She opened the book with delicacy, admiring the pages, just as she was about to turn the page, the breeze of the wind did it for her.

Wind? She quickly looked at the direction

She froze the moment her eyes met an open backdoor. It wasn't open last night, she was completely sure of it, because Ringo and she spent part of the evening in that room.

She rose and scanned the room, looking for any signal of chakra as fast as she could. Nothing.

She closed her eyes and let her nose look for anything unusual, room by room. She was not a sensor nin, she could only detect chakra on a much more limited range. That was a problem in these cases.

She kept looking for any signal of an intruder, but when she did, it was not what she had expected.

Five… no, six shinobis were approaching her direction. "Shit, shit, shit..."

She quickly closed her eyes, allowing the scent to show her the location of each one of them.

They were together, running to the direction of the front door.

No…

She could perfectly see one of the shinobis, but the other five were… merged in one?

Was it possible for a single individual to posses that amount of vital energy? She had never seen such a thing in her whole life. What a fascinating amount of chakra.

They were moving fast, there was no time to run without being unnoticed. She lowered her chakra levels as much as she could, as she looked around. This house didn't have many places to hide. She bit her lip... There was no use in fighting against them. She had her energy recovered, but she doubted she could stand a fight with both shinobis at the same time, and speed was never one of her strengths: she could be fast, very fast, but it consumed her chakra with the very speed she ran with. She opted for the only viable alternative she could think of: the bedroom. She rapidly entered the room, looking at her options. She threw herself in the wardrobe, hoping the cheap trick that came to her mind would buy her enough time to escape. Just as she closed the door, she heard a loud noise at the entrance.

/

The Akatsuki members crashed the door open, looking for the slightest sign of anyone being inside the house. None of them felt the any kind of presence.

"Is she gone?" asked Hidan aloud, not really talking to anyone.

Kakuzu quickly moved through the rooms, looking for something that proved otherwise.

He succeeded when he arrived to the living room.

"No".

He picked an old looking book from the floor, and showed it to his partner.

"Looks like someone didn't have time to escape."

/

The moment she closed the door, she heard a loud noise. She stood quietly in the large wardrobe, waiting for the intruders.

There was no way that they were looking for _her._ The only man that knew she was there was lying dead a few meters away.

What had the old man done? She barely knew anything about him, to be honest, so anyone could have been looking for him.

She heard quick steps, followed by the sound of a male voice: "Is she gone?"

Her eyes widened. They WERE looking for her.

But how the fuck...? Her thoughts were interrupted by a second voice. "No... Looks like someone didn't have enough time to escape."

If she could have done anything in that moment, she would have smashed her own head against the wall. The book. The goddamn book.

She hated herself for being so careless. Everything had gone so well until now that she had forgotten something this time, and ended up screwing something up. She still didn't even know what it was yet…

She could feel the shinobis' chakras entering the room

"Heh, seems like you'll be able to recover some of the losses huh?" said the weaker man, if she could call him weak at all. She realized now that his chakra was greater than the one of the ninjas she had confronted lately, but she hadn't noticed it before because of the man with the monstrous chakra behind him.

To be honest, she was more marveled than scared. It was not only the quantity that amazed her, but also the way it irradiated, as if more than a soul habited his body.

"We know you are here." said the other ninja. It was a low, powerful voice. Whoever his owner was, he was certainly intimidating in more than a way. "There's no use on hiding."

She had no time left, but fortunately, she still had the advantage: they knew she was somewhere around, but she knew exactly where they were.

She concentrated her chakra on her feet in less than a second, and bursted out of the wardrobe with a kick.

/

The shinobis entered the main bedroom. and looked around. There was not a single hint of chakra to be followed anywhere. Hidan wondered if his partner was right at all. She probably had left, but Kakuzu was completely sure she was in that room. They had already registered every single corner and room, but there was no sign that she was there. Neither of them were sensors, but the woman would have to be able to make her chakra disappear to be completely invisible, which was highly unlikely.

Violet eyes landed immediately over a figure on the bed.

"Heh, seems like you'll be able to recover some of the losses huh?" said the jashinist, staring at the corpse.

Kakuzu didn't reply. He'd care about that later. The masked man beckoned to Hidan, indicating him to stay close to the wardrobe's doors.

The room was spacious; there were just two places their prey could be: The wardrobe, or the closet at the wall next to it. The woman's chakra was nowhere to be found, but he was certain: The last victim's house was completely neat, as if a ghost had been the man's killer. But not this time: she had left hints of the presence here and there. The book, the couch, the open door, even a couple of footsteps on the carpet. They had caught her by surprise, and, it seemed, she did not react very well to this situations.

Kakuzu placed himself close to the closet door. "We know you are here. There's no use on hiding." He scanned the room, looking for a minimum regulation in the room.

Everything was quiet for a minute. The silver haired shinobi thought of the lack of possibilities of the woman to be in there.

However…

He looked at the corpse over the bed. If she could kill someone that discretely, she would probably have high skills of camouflage.

"Behind You..!" Hidan had no time to defend himself. He felt himself crashing into a wall and saw Kakuzu's hand flash in front of him. He closed his eyes, as his head hit the wall.

There was a loud thump, a clash of weapons, the sound of glass breaking.

The jashinist still felt a strong pressure against his torso. Was kind of kick was that?

His thoughts were blacked out in a second.


	4. Chapter 4

/

She couldn't stop panting. She hated running like that more than anything else in this world.

She quickly scanned her surroundings to confirm she had lost the shinobis. When she was finished, she collapsed over the floor.

Closing her eyes, she repeated the scene on her head, over and over.

She exited the closet with a kick, landing on the weaker attacker to stop her body and change her direction. She heard the second shinobi yell at his partner, and, before she could even a muscle, she founded herself wrapped by what seemed to be some sort of tentacles, and felt a hand firmly pressing down her neck. It took her a moment to realize that the "tentacles" were thick threads, linked to the man's arm, who had released his hand from the rest of his body.

Suddenly she felt her feet burning because of the accumulated chakra, and did everything she could not to scream out in pain.

Then she heard a loud thump: She had placed a shadow clone inside the closet, which came out violently, attacking her captor. He didn't let go of her, but turned his head to the clone as he defended himself with his other hand. She took this opportunity to build chakra on her arms, tensing the threads until they broke. She struggled against the hand that was still pressing on her neck. She managed to take it off and threw it next to the unconscious albino, as she gasped for air.

As she approached the closest window, she felt the masked man behind her, leaving her no choice but to turn around to defend herself. She used the chakra on her arm as a shield, covering herself from the man's kunai.

Her hazel eyes met a pair of emerald orbs looking at her penetratingly.

Before the man could react, she pulled his arm away and threw herself out the window, going out of sight as fast as she could.

Her feet still hurt. It was awfully damaging for her to suddenly stop moving once she concentrated that amount of chakra in a single part of her body.

It would take her a night or two to fully recover.

She couldn't stay longer at the Land of Waves. They wouldn't leave her alone that easily.

She thought of the emerald-eyed man. How could he posses such vital energy? He didn't seem to have any trouble controlling his chakra flow...

She had been looking for a long time for a ninja with a great amount of high quality chakra, but had not yet seen anything like that. Not only she felt an interest for him, but she also wished to have such chakra for herself.

If only hadn't met him under those circumstances...

She stood up, letting out a sigh. It would be better for her to quickly find a place to recover, before leaving off to… well, somewhere else.

The day had already started and was pretty awful. What made her even more frustrated, what the fact that she had to leave that precious book behind. She was sure she wouldn't find another one anywhere.

She looked at the arm she had used to defend herself: It had suffered an insignificant scratch, however it wouldn't stop bleeding. She took a bandage from her pouch and wrapped the small wound tightly.

She walked slowly through the deserted path, thinking of where to go next.

/

Kakuzu gritted his teeth in anger. If that idiot hadn't let his guard down...He had gone after her when she escaped, but lost her track almost immediately.

Of all things, he didn't expect her to have such a velocity. What also took him by surprise was how young she looked; to have such potential, he thought he would find himself in front of a middle-aged kunoichi... But she did not seem to be older than Hidan.

The masked shinobi cursed.

Now he was left with his retard of a partner and a dead man.

He looked at the corpse over the bed: at least he could retrieve the 40 million ryō bounty.

He suddenly heard gasps and whispers coming from the house entrance. It was better for him to leave as fast as possible. Kakuzu took the unconscious Hidan over one of his wide shoulders, and Arashi Ringo's corpse in another. He got out through the window, and headed towards the closest bounty station.

[...]

He finally arrived to the shore. The sea moved agitatedly, forming small waves that crashed with the cold breeze. The shinobi entered the station, being received by one of Zangei's partners.

The bounty exchanger looked at the body of the black haired man and smirked. "You caught a rather large fish this time, Kakuzu-san". The masked Akatsuki limited himself to finish with the transaction.

"I don't recall seeing him in any of the lists." Said jokingly the bounty exchanger, staring at the motionless albino that Kakuzu had left at the entrance. "Will you leave him too?"

Kakuzu was busy placing the briefcase he had just received in a scroll.

"Unfortunately, that one is not dead yet."

[...]

"Two single rooms".

The receptionist gave glances at the man he had attended the night before and the one of his shoulders. What was she supposed to do? She had a mild curiosity about these strange men, but was too afraid to ask what had happened.

"Is he alright?" she asked hesitantly.

"He drank too much and passed out" replied the masked man. "Don't pay much attention to him, he won't be any trouble."

She wasn't sure if she should believe that, but they both had left a considerate tip when they left that morning, so she didn't think she was on the right to deny them the rooms. She handed the keys.

"They're the same rooms you used last time".

The masked man nodded and turned away.

Kakuzu laid his partner on the bed, and prepared a small, medical kit.

He wasn't a medical nin, but he had lived enough to know how to treat several sorts of wounds properly. "If you're prepared, there won't be any sorrow"

He took the silver-haired man's cloak off, revealing a portion of burnt skin on his bare torso.

He did all those bloody rituals, but fainted with something like this?

Kakuzu placed his hand over the wound and started it heal it. When he did, Kakuzu frowned. It wasn't a common scorch; the girl's chakra had passed through Hidan's skin, wrapping itself around vital organs. He wouldn't have died if he could, but the damage would have been difficult to repair.

When Kakuzu finished treating him, the albino slowly opened his eyes. He seemed confused, after all, it wasn't like he was used to falling unconscious in battle.

"What happened?" he asked demandingly.

"She escaped." replied the masked shinobi, grabbing some paper from the nightstand's drawer and starting to scribble over it. "We will spend the night here; I can't have Daikoku realize he hired an idiot like you."

"Shut the fuck up! How was I supposed to block that? You wouldn't have reacted in time either, you shithead." At least he seemed to have recovered his energy.

"It's already late, you slept all day" Said Kakuzu, ignoring the yelling. "You have to eat something. Let's go downstairs, I need to send our report anyway."

/

She was sitting on one of the tables near a corner. The place wasn't much decorated; it was a well-sized, squared room, but the space wasn't given the best use. There were only a couple of simple frames on the gray walls, and the tables were placed around the borders of the room. Some smaller, almost individual tables were placed in the middle.

For a second she thought that the place was somewhat humble, but she reminded herself that she had been staying in luxurious places lately, so anything could look humble for her at the moment.

She poured some more sake on her glass. She wouldn't be able to gain energy tonight, so she needed to at least relax a little.

She looked at the people on the room: A couple was sitting two tables away from her, having dinner. They both kept looking at each other, and then looking away blushing. They probably hadn't been much time together, she asumed.

On the other side of the room, there were two tables full of men happily drinking and laughing.

She didn't even need to sense their chakras to know they were civilians, it wasn't really hard to tell.

All of them were awfully boring.

She took a swig from her glass. Just as she was about to swallow, a particular sent in her nose took her by surprise, making her choke.

She quickly looked at the restaurant's door, only to confirm her hunch: They were here, in the very same room, taking a seat exactly at the opposite side of the room. They didn't seem to have noticed her presence, but it wouldn't be for long if she didn't manage to look away.

Yet she _couldn't_ look away. Had they followed her? She didn't think so, otherwise they would have captured her before.

Her surprise turned into a mix of fear and thrill just as emerald and hazel eyes met again.

Maybe it could be an interesting night after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Kakuzu's eyes drilled into the woman sitting at the other side of the room.

He had the urge to throw himself at her and snap her neck. How dared she sit so calmly in there, right in front of them? The only thing stopping him right on his spot was knowing his mission needed discretion, and acting from an impulse at that place would bring nothing but problems. She was staring at him wide-eyed, but didn't look very tense at all; on the contrary, she was almost sneering at him.

Kakuzu clenched his fists with impotence.

Hidan looked at his partner: The masked shinobi seemed to be angry, apparently staring at something behind him. The jashinist would have asked, or looked at the same direction, but Kakuzu was probably recalling the events on the day and he didn't want to start arguing again, so he decided to concentrate on eating from the plate in front of him.

A waitress passed by them, but Kakuzu didn't react when she blocked his view. Maybe he was just spacing out.

A few minutes later, the waitress approached their table and served them some drinks. Hidan looked at her in confusion; they hadn't ordered any... Then the albino looked at his partner: he looked even more pissed than before.

"The… the drinks are on the house," said the waitress, who also looked a little confused. "Courtesy of the lady at the other table."

Hidan was puzzled, but before he could ask anything, she walked away to help a drunken idiot who had fallen off his chair.

Lady?

He looked at Kakuzu again. The masked shinobi was glaring furiously at the same direction he had been staring, so he decided to turn his head as well.

A pale girl with chocolate colored hair was looking back them grinning. When Hidan looked at her, she even waved at them.

It took the jashinist some time before he realized who she was. His face turned from confusion to perplexity, and then to anger.

"Who does she think she is mocking?" Before he could stand up, his partner's voice replied.

"Stop. We can't cause turmoil in here, and she knows it very well." Kakuzu gritted his teeth in anger. "We'll get rid of her as soon as she sets her feet out of the Inn. "

The girl stood from her seat and headed towards the restaurant's exit. Just as she passed by them, Kakuzu's pride took over him, and he grabbed her arm forcefully. She looked at him, half shocked, half amused. "Don't act so cocky, woman. You will regret it."

She turned fully to them and rested her hands over their table.

"Now, there's no need to get all offensive. I was simply thanking you." She saw the albino about to protest, so she continued. "I went back to the house after you left… It was helpful to have you clean my little mess for me." The shinobis glared at her.

"You, bitch..."

"Anyway, there are some things I'm curious about." She said, still ignoring the jashinist. "How did you find me? Did you work for that old man…? Hiashi… Takashi… I don't even remember what his name was."

Kakuzu clenched his fist again under the table. Was this woman serious?

"What the fuck are you trying to do? Do you even know the men you've been killing?" he said, with his emerald eyes fixed on her face.

Short tempered, quick deduction skills, aggressive... she most definitely found the man in front of her amusing.

She unwittingly grinned.

"Excuse me..." said a voice behind them. The three ninjas turned around to face the waitress that had attended them before.

"The restaurant is about to close."

Without a word, Kakuzu stood from his place and headed towards the rooms, quickly followed by the girl. Hidan stretched himself lazily before standing up. "Hey! Wait a minute you two."

Kakuzu and the woman were already about to go upstairs when they heard Hindan's voice, which made them stop on their track.

"I could tell you what you want to know" She started, with a low voice. "If you come to my room tonight, when everyone's asleep."

The shinobi glared at her. Excluding Hidan, any person that ever had the guts to mock him like that was six feet underground (or deeper), but he couldn't lay a finger on her as long as they stood in there. He had just learned about her existence three days ago, and he already loathed her.

"Did you fuckers listen to me?" The jashinist approached them, visibly annoyed.

"Room 13" She muttered, so only Kakuzu could hear her. "Just don't bring that idiot with you."

"I had an awful day." She stated. "I'm going to sleep." She looked at Hidan for a moment, smiling again. "You're quite strong, you know. I'm surprised you can act so spirited after that kick." With that, she turned around and started to climb the stairs.

"Of course I am, what were you thinking, you fucking bitch?"

"The name's Liv, not bitch. Shut up already, some people should be trying to sleep by now."

"Che..." Hidan gritted his teeth. If Kakuzu thought he would wait until she deigned herself to exit the place, he was very wrong. The moment she gave him one more reason to kill her, he wouldn't hesitate to do it.

"Go to sleep. I'll keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't run away."

Hidan just stared at him. How was this man even alive? Did he ever rest, or eat at least? The jashinist already knew the answer for that, but he still couldn't think of how his partner could endure days, or even weeks without eating or resting. What was the point of it if he was going to sleep for days after the missions ended? Kakuzu's logics remained a mystery for the violet-eyed shinobi.

The Akatsuki members went upstairs and headed to their rooms. "Don't be so careless, Hidan. If you keep letting your guard down, she will get you killed." said the elder man. Hidan gave him his usual smirk.

"As if she could, Kakuzu."

[...]

The masked shinobi stared out of the window. The nightly landscape was sublime; he could see the white shores colliding with the dark ocean, a few miles away from the forest.

Having such a view helped him think clearly.

To baby-sit Tenzen Daikoku, he would have to split from Hidan so one of them could stay at the Land of Waves, but something told him it wasn't a good idea to chase down the girl on his own.

He had to admit that this Liv woman was quite a character. She probably didn't even know who they were, or she would have been more careful around them... No, she wouldn't. She looked like an imprudent brat, just like his partner.

The emerald-eyed shinobi took his cloak and his mask off, sitting on the bed.

It was better to have Hidan on his side, but he had orders to follow; Akatsuki depended on the money he collected and its reputation at the moment, he couldn't just throw the mission away. He recalled their small talk downstairs. What was this woman thinking? Was she so sure that he couldn't harm her that she invited him to her room? He thought of the man outside of the restaurant: _"The boy said a woman killed him... she spent the night with Ringo, and in the morning he was dead._" Did she really think she could brush him off that easily? If she had done the same with the other men, they all would have been out of guard: She didn't wear a headband, and with her appearance, no one would think she was a kunoichi. However, Kakuzu knew what she was up to, so it wouldn't be the same. It was impossible for her not to know that.

He looked at the clock in the wall: It was past midnight. The solutions that came to his head hurt his pride, but he didn't have much time to waste thinking of alternatives.

/

A pair of red eyes looked up to the starry sky. There was a full moon; covered slightly by the winter fog, bathing the forests with its smooth light. He could have stayed there forever, forgetting about the world around him. Forgetting about the future of that beautiful moon, destined to be taken by Madara's eyes.

A familiar sensation brought him back to reality. "Kisame, someone is calling us."

The man beside him, who had apparently been sleeping, opened his eyes. "Yes, I felt it too. We better hurry then." The shinobis closed their eyes.

They could only find Kakuzu's hologram. "Where are the others?" Asked the blue-skinned man.

"I only called you two."

Kisame stared at the elder Akatsuki. "Oh?"

"I have a favor to ask you." Kakuzu explained. "We have been going through some complications during our job... our objective is close, but we will be struggling with territorial limitations. It would be useful to have a couple of extra hands to do this quickly."

The blue shinobi grinned. "I can't believe my ears, the immortal duo is asking for help?"

Kakuzu glared at the taller man. "A very large quantity of money depends on this mission. I'd prefer to finish this as fast as possible."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Itachi, before Kisame could provoke the elder shinobi again.

"There's something I have to do right now, meet me at the Great Naruto Bridge tomorrow. I'll give you the details then" replied Kakuzu.

"Understood."


	6. Chapter 6

/

Liv lied over the bed, staring into space. She wondered if what she had done was a good idea, and concluded that she had made a huge mistake by inviting the emerald-eyed stranger to her room. She didn't even know how she was going to get away from these men without them noticing, but at her state, having him so close... Her instincts acted by themselves before she could do anything about it.

What if he actually showed up? Would she be able to handle him? Liv closed her eyes, lost in her thoughts. She had never dealt with a man (or a woman) with this amount of vital energy, and even though it impressed her to no end, she couldn't understand how it was possible. She had met a Jinchūriki in the past, but it was a completely different thing: She could perfectly detect the difference between the Jinchūriki and the Bijū; and even see the form of the tailed beast, but when she looked at the masked man's chakra, she could only see his energy as one perfectly built entity.

This could get her killed. It most likely would get her killed. However, she did not feel the slightest fear inside of her... Maybe she unconsciously thought curiosity could only take one out of nine of the cat's lives.

/

Kakuzu stood quietly in front of the door. It wasn't the wisest decision to make, but if he could gain more information about her before he met the other Akatsuki members, he would have more advantage of the situation. The emerald-eyed shinobi knocked on the door hesitantly; not being sure if that was the right thing to do in the situation. He then turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly. The room was dark, very dark; the moon's position didn't allow much light through the window.

Kakuzu couldn't feel the woman's presence. It was inconvenient for both of them to start a fight in a place like that one, so why was she hiding? Did she try to distract him by giving him another room number? He walked cautiously in the room, looking for a light switch. It didn't take much time for him to find it, it was placed right where it was located in his room.

With the click of the switch, he heard the door close. The shinobi instinctively turned around to defend himself, but before he could reach for a weapon, he felt a pressure over his lips.

He suddenly felt light-headed; his eyes were still adjusting to the light in the room. An n arm was pressing the back of his neck, slightly pulling him down to the kunoichi's height. His mouth burnt, and the surprising sensation made him part his slips slightly, giving Liv the opportunity to forcefully slide her tongue in his mouth. Kakuzu glared at her in frustration. He felt weaker with each second, and he was barely able to move.

So this was what happened to the idiots who were fooled by her appearance.

With some struggle, he managed to move his hand up to her neck and pushed her against the closest wall. Liv gasped in pain, as Kakuzu pressed more force against her neck.

"What do you think you're doing?" Growled the shinobi furiously. Not only was it stupid from her to try to attack him like that, but she also had underestimated him. Was this idiot suicidal?

He didn't expect the woman to smirk at him. "I knew it" she managed to articulate. "I knew you wouldn't die."

Kakuzu frowned, letting go of the woman's neck and reaching for a kunai to keep her in her place. "What are you implying? Explain yourself."

The kunoichi's smirk turned into a simple smile. "Any other man would be dead by now. But you still have enough strenght to defend yourself." She closed her eyes for a second, letting her nose show her the man's energy. She could still see the vitality of four strong ninjas inside of him. "That strange chakra of yours... I knew I had to taste it from the moment I saw it."

The emerald-eyed shinobi gritted his teeth.

The bitch was only testing him.

"You said you'd answer my questions if I came here." he started. "If you know what is best for you, you will answer them." Liv's smile left her face, as her hazel orbs stared right into him. "You've been selective with your victims the past month, but you don't follow a particular pattern. Why? What are you trying to achieve with that?"

The woman's expression darkened for a second. Since when had he been following her? Fortunately for Liv, he only knew about the men she had been killing, and didn't know much about her.

Kakuzu thought he had disturbed the woman, but before he could make sure he was right, her bright, mocking grin was plastered on her face again. "That is because... there is no pattern at all." With every word, the shinobi felt his anger increasing. "I didn't have a reason to kill them."

The emerald-eyed man pushed the woman, slamming her onto the wall once again. "Give me a single reason not to kill you in this instant."

For the first time, Kakuzu saw Liv frowning. She closed her eyes and rapidly opened them again. "You're waking people up."

It was Kakuzu's turn to frown once again. He had the overwhelming desire to finish her on the spot, but he reminded himself he could not cause disturbance in there. It would be a problem if a curious head wanted to know what was going on in that room, and it would be even worse if Hidan woke up: The hotheaded idiot would definitely make a scene and both of them would find themselves in deep shit.

The girl had not taken her eyes off him the whole time, which bothered him to no end. "This isn't over" he muttered, storming out of the room.

He crossed the hallway at a quick pace. No one had gotten out of their room, but he could feel a couple of presences in movement.

She wasn't lying, then.

Just as he was about to open his room door, the door beside him opened. "Oi, Kakuzu, I heard some noises just now. What was that all about? It's two o'fucking clock." Complained the jashinist.

"Shut up and go back to sleep"

"Don't ignore me, bastard. Where the fuck were you?"

"It's not of your business, stupid kid."

Without realizing it, both shinobis found themselves in Kakuzu's room.

"Shit... you wake me up in the middle of the night, and you really think I'll just pretend nothing happened? Did that skank try to escape or something?"

"She's still here. Nothing happened. Now will you get the fuck out of here? I need you to watch her tomorrow at noon, and I don't want to hear you whining like the pms-ing bitch you are."

"What did you just say, you fucking rag doll?"

Kakuzu sighed in annoyance. "Listen, you still need to rest to recover fully; so go back to your damn room, I'll keep an eye on her. I will meet with Itachi and Kisame tomorrow to prevent any kind of complaint from Daikoku, and she will probably try to flee. You'll follow her, doesn't matter where she is going. When I'm done, I'll go after you, but don't try to kill her until I'm there. I don't want you to screw it up like the last time."

Hidan would have yelled at his partner if there weren't so many people near by them. Why, oh why was he paired with him?

"Yeah, whatever." spat the jashinist, rolling his eyes. As he exited the room, he started cursing under his breath and muttering for himself. "I don't like to work with that shark... pisses me off sometimes."

/

The kunoichi lifted herself from the floor, trying to recover her breath. Definitely, the strength of that stranger was most impressive. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, letting out a sigh as her hands traced over the bruises left on her neck by the shinobi's fingers.

What a bother. She had just recovered part of her energy and she would have to waste some of it for pure vanity. It's not that she cared of how she looked, but what she did depended a lot on it. Her thoughts wandered on the man with emerald eyes. She could feel him walking through the corridor, and then detected the energy of his partner. She could hear their voices in the distance through the paper-thin walls. "Oi, Kakuzu, I heard some noises just now. What was that all about? It's two o'fucking clock."

Liv smiled to herself. That guy didn't know the meaning of the word "prudence", did he? He was complaining about the loud noise by yelling even louder.

"Kakuzu", she whispered, recalling the taste of the shin obi's chakra. The name somehow ringed a bell; but she couldn't remember if she had actually heard it before, and besides, she found his face to be completely unfamiliar to her. He had strong features, but if it wasn't for the stitches on the sides of his mouth and his always hard expression, she could have said he was handsome.

Just as she had imagined, his chakra was very different from other ninjas: From the very moment she touched it, she could feel the strong power it possessed; and its flavor had done nothing but left her even more intrigued. She had tasted chakras of two elements at once, but Kakuzu's chakra possessed four elements. It was hard to believe that a single individual possessed such qualities.

If she could be sure of one thing, is that she needed to get away from them as fast as she could if she wanted to stay alive.

Both of them were stronger than she had imagined.

She wondered what the reason why they were after her was. They didn't look like the servants of that man... their attire was different. Had someone hired them? Maybe the Water Damiyō? Or the Mizukage? After all everything she had done was for the sake of getting the attention of any of them.

She thought of her teacher for a second, but discarded the idea immediately. She thought either Liv was dead or with that man, the whole country did. Not that she minded, it was better that way. This made her be thankful for the conflicts between the Land of Water and the closer countries; so nobody would recognize her attacks or her face. Nevertheless, she placed that genjutsu around her just in case, which made her wonder how those men had known who she was.

There had to be a way to escape from these cloaked men... But she needed some sleep before she could think of anything. At least she was safe, as long as she stayed as close to civilians as she could.

/

"Dude, did you hear about what happened at the Land of Waves this morning?"

"Of course I did, everyone's been talking about the murder of Kirigakure's head ninja."

"Ne, isn't it scary? They say it could be the same ninja that did those murders at the Land of Water. I heard it was a single kunoichi who was doing all this mess."

"A woman? Are you kidding? You shouldn't believe every rumor you listen. It should be just a morbid stupid story."

"No, dude, it's true. Arashi Ringo's kid survived, he was the only witness of his father's murder. He ran to the town saying a woman had killed his father. Now everyone calls her the Black Widow."

"Why?"

"Heh, well the boy said the woman had slept with Ringo, and all of the corpses that have been found were male... Some people say that when they found the bodies, the men were all hard-on."

"Seriously dude, where do you hear those things? That's disgusting." The conversation went along with some laughter and jokes.

Kisame listened with a bored expression on his face to the men sitting on the table beside him. The chatter had started to get even more stupid than it already was, so he directed his attention to the black-haired man in front of him.

They had already arrived to the border of the Land of Fire, so he and his partner decided to rest a little until dawn to keep going.

"I wonder what the Zombie Combo wants from us. Did you know anything about their mission?" he said mockingly. He had never liked them much; after all, who'd like an ill-tempered, greedy old man and an arrogant, foul-mouthed priest? The blue-skinned man admitted it could be quite amusing to watch them argue though.

Itachi took the last sip of his tea and stood up. "I am not sure. I think someone had requested personal protection against a murder, or something similar. We better get some sleep before we meet Kakuzu. He's always been almost as impatient as Sasori."

Kisame nodded and followed his partner out of the small eatery.


	7. Chapter 7

/

It was a cold morning, colder than it had been since the Akatsuki arrived to the Land of Waves. That would probably keep Hidan in bed a couple of hours more, since he refused to use a shirt no matter how easily he got cold. This is why Kakuzu had decided not to wait for him to go downstairs. The shinobi received Daikoku's reply at dawn, confirming there had been no threats against him.

He went upstairs once again, drawing near to room 13 to assure himself that she was still there. He regretted not having killed her the night before, but the organization's reputation still depended on their discretion, at least until next year. It bothered him. He loathed following orders that restricted his actions like that. However, his earnings increased considerably by working for Akatsuki, so he had no reason not to follow them as long as it didn't disfavor him.

Kakuzu went back to his room and looked at the clock. Kisame and Itachi would arrive in about an hour, and neither Hidan nor the woman had gotten out of their rooms. The masked shinobi let out a heavy sigh, knowing he had to drag his partner out of bed.

/

Liv had not gotten much sleep that night. She tried, but she was more insecure about having a pair of strong ninjas who wanted her death than she wanted to admit. It was troublesome. She loathed to be cornered; and having to take an enemy seriously was not very pleasant either, she already had enough of people to care about.

The kunoichi couldn't have left her guard down that night even if she wanted to, since she kept sensing a great amount of chakra approaching her room door every now and then. How the hell was she getting away if he kept checking on her every second?

It was almost noon, but the chances of running into any of the cloaked men kept her from going out.

Cloaks.

She hadn't taken in account how strange their attires were until now. It looked like a uniform, but whatever it represented was completely alien to her. Liv wondered if anyone around would know if she asked; after all, she had very little knowledge of the current situation of the Land of Water, or the rest of the shinobi countries for that matter. However, she didn't have the choice to wait around and gather that information, at least not more than the one she needed. "Time is essential..." she thought.

She tried, oh how she tried to pull everything off in a different way. But this world was just careless, and so afraid of war that she had been left with no other choice... and she was running out of time to prepare herself for the worst. It didn't matter how, but she had to get these strangers out her way, now.

/

Hidan would have been in a better mood if his idiot partner hadn't knocked him off the bed. Cold. It was damn cold in that goddamned island. He sat on the small restaurant by himself, drinking a double espresso to get rid of his weariness.

The woman hadn't gotten out of her room yet, and Kakuzu had left just a few moments ago off to the bridge.

The jashinist wondered what had happened the night before. Kakuzu was royally pissed about something, and asked for_ help_. What in the world had gotten into him? Of all the people he had ever known, Kakuzu was the last one he would have ever imagined asking a favor to anyone. Not only that, but he had asked _them_ for help. Hidan didn't care much about Itachi: he was quiet and cold, the only things that he knew about him is that he was very strong and had killed his clan... pretty much irrelevant for him; but he had never really liked Kisame, and he knew that the feeling was mutual. The shark man had always that mocking smirk that got his nerves... and the jashinist could tell Kakuzu wasn't very fond of him either. So why them? He stared blankly down to his cup, turning it around in his hands.

Slowly standing up, he made his way upstairs once again to check on their little prey. "This bitch is really a pain in the ass." he muttered to himself.

To his surprise, he found her just as she was leaving her room. She seemed to snap back to reality when her eyes met the jashinist; and gave him a surprised look for as second, but she hid her shock immediately plastering her trademark smirk on her once again. "Good morning".

Hidan wasn't sure if her tone implied mockery or simple cheerfulness, so he made no reply. She must have seen the confusion on his face, because she quickly continued talking. "Ah, my bad. It's afternoon already isn't it? With all of yesterday's action I overslept."

The albino raised a brow. Was this woman serious? She smiled at him as if he was her friendly neighbor paying a visit. He'd see if she still felt like smiling at him when he ripped her face off.

"Aren't you cold? That cloak of yours doesn't look very warm... or comfortable." she said, looking at him with curiosity.

"That cockiness of yours is fucking gonna get back at you, you know".

"I'm not being cocky, it's called being polite. Have you ever heard of that?" She crossed her arms, standing right in front of him. He looked down at her face. Well, sort of. She was rather... tall, for a woman at least. Almost as tall as he was... maybe about Itachi's height.

"Don't fuck with me. Do you normally go have a fucking cup of tea with people that intend to kill you or something?"

"No, but it sounds like an entertaining thing to do." She replied with a grin. "Listen, I'd love to chat with you, but I'm starving. So unless you'd like to be the first person who wants me dead to have a cup of tea with me, you'll have to excuse me." With that, she passed by Hidan and started to walk through the corridor. "Oh, and by the way..." She added. "You sir, have a very foul mouth. It wouldn't harm you to speak properly once in a while."

/

The cool breeze filled the blue-skinned man's lungs. It was always good for him to be near by the sea; his body reacted positively to the coast weather.

They, him and his partner, were about to arrive to their meeting point. Kisame could already catch sight of Kakuzu's silhouette, waiting for them at the other side of the bridge. Both shinobis walked silently at a good pace, straw hats covering their heads. The place was completely silent, which made Kisame wonder if foreigners had attacked them recently. Such a peaceful and defenseless island wasn't worth invading, was it? It had been a while since he had been in the Land of Waves, quite a boring place for his taste.

When they met Kakuzu, he explained who Tenzen Daikoku was and what he had ordered them to do.

"It is a sneaky enemy, we've found. In addition, she has a considerable strength. Since she escaped from me once with great velocity, which makes me believe she will be able to flee from Hidan at any moment now. "The elder shinobi's voice sounded irritated, almost angry. "We are not supposed to leave the Land of Waves; therefore, having someone to represent us in our absence would help us to be able to move."

Kisame was slightly bothered. "So we just have to stand here and wait for you to come back."

"Not exactly." replied Kakuzu. "It'll be more than enough to have one of you to say here. I underestimated the woman once and Hidan was severely injured. I need one of you to come with me, in case we need reinforcement.

That didn't make it much better for the taller shinobi, but at least it wasn't as boring as being a substitute.

"What kind of fighter is this… kunoichi?" asked the black haired man.

"It seems like her main weapon is her own chakra. She possesses a good quantity of it, and is capable of absorbing her enemy's vital energy. I am not certain of what kind of jutsu it is, but it's similar to the Execution by Kiss technique"

"I thought that technique could only be used by very few ninjas from the Land of Fire. Probably just one or two..."

"That is what I thought too, that is why I can't assure it is the same technique, but it quite similar."

Kisame grinned and looked at the emerald-eyed shinobi, wondering if he had seen her use the jutsu, or it had been used on him. Either way, the blue-skinned shinobi knew that the ninjas who were capable to perform absorption techniques had a fair quantity of chakra, which made her the sort of enemy he liked to fight the most. Maybe it could be interesting after all.

"Itachi-san. I'd like to go with Kakuzu, if you don't have any reason to object."

"Do as you please."

/

As she dried her chocolate hair with a towel, Liv finished dressing herself, putting her shoes on. The silver-haired shinobi had followed her everywhere, until she decided to go inside the hot springs. Something told her he was still putting an eye on her from the men's section, but that was as far as she could get from him for now. It would at least buy her some advantage to run away. Because of the cold weather, she was the only girl in the large bath, which was both deeper and wider than she had thought when she first looked at it. Liv let out a sigh, aware that she was going to have to run like that time once again.

She closed her eyes and scanned her surroundings. She was right, the albino stranger was at the other side of the springs, but she couldn't find Kakuzu anywhere. That worried her. Was he in town? Was he waiting for her or something? Had he finally gone to sleep? Where on earth was he?

Liv guessed it was better not to know, and to take advantage of the situation. She quietly concentrated chakra on her feet again, and jumped over the high fence that surrounded the place.

She started running, fast, faster. Heading inside the borders of the Land of Fire. Soon enough, she felt the silver-haired shinobi following her. She increased her speed even more in an attempt to lose him, but a new kind of energy took her by surprise. A great amount of chakra moved rapidly towards her. She recognized it as Kakuzu's chakra, and turned to a new direction. It had been hard enough to escape the first time, and now both of them were behind her. "Shit..."

She used all of the chakra concentrated in her feet to make her movements faster, not really knowing where she was heading to any longer. Her heart was racing, not only because of the effort, but also because of the tension building inside of her. She had to lose them, now.

Her body was suddenly traveled by a wave of shock, realizing there was a third, greater chakra right in the direction she was running to. Not only had this body a larger amount of chakra than Kakuzu's, it was also ridiculously abundant. A Jinchūriki? It had enough energy to be one, but she could not tell what it was. Liv started to panic realizing she had nowhere to run.

She couldn't stop her feet; the speed and tha chakra were to much to handle like that, and she couldn't turn away without going straight to any of the other two. How could she be so naive, not thinking that man would have his own plans too? She pressed her feet firmly to the ground, being dragged by the force she had used to run to where the morbidly vast amount of chakra came from.

Liv looked at the man in front of her: He was very tall, and wore the same cloak as the other two. Some things that seemed to be some kind of gills on his face; they were just a few shades darker than his blue skin. He had a hectoring grin on his face, showing a set of sharp jaws. The man resembled a shark in more than a way.

"My, don't tell me you're the one who has been causing us so much trouble. I thought I'd find myself in front of someone more... intimidating." Said the shinobi with a slightly mocking tone.

Kakuzu's chakra had been a fine discovery. Liv should have been worried, but the excitement of such a rare thing had made her almost forget how dangerous the man actually was. But in that moment, she could barely feel anything but fear.

Who was this man? Or a better question would have been _What_ was he? His chakra was nothing like Kakuzu's: The emerald shinobi irradiated more life than any human being she had met; as if it was the chakra of more than one person. The chakra in front of her felt like the chakra of a single individual, but the quantity was impossibly high. Like a Bijū's energy. The thing is, there was no demon inside him at all.

/

Kisame found himself in front of a thin, pale young woman. Her appearance had taken him by surprise, but since he had been paired with Itachi he knew better than to judge a book by its pretty cover. Besides, for what he knew, she could be an old hag that had kept her looks thanks to the chakra absorption.

He couldn't help but smile at the girl's shock, as she stared right at him. She had already realized how much chakra he kept inside of him, but she quickly hid her emotions as she adopted a defensive pose, aware that she had been cornered to fight. Kisame's gin grew wider.

"Considering how Kakuzu talked about you, I thought it would be a pain in the ass to listen to you, but you're not very talkative when you're helpless, are you?"

The shinobi wielded the gigantic blade he carried, unwrapping it from the white bandages around it.

The girl's sight went straight to his weapon, and she was wide-eyed once again. Kisame was used to the reaction, Samehada was feared by anyone with knowledge about the Seven Swordsmen of the Midst.

"You look troubled" he chuckled, never taking his eyes off his prey. His grin faded slightly when a small smile was placed on the girl's lips. What had occurred to her, he wondered.

"Hey, shark man, could you tell me your name?" Kisame did not flinch, but a mild curiosity grew in him; just as Kakuzu said, she was a strange character.

"And why would that matter to you?"

Her hazel eyes locked with his, giving him a... challenging? glare. He was unsure of what her eyes showed, or how finding out he was one of Swordsmen had that effect on her.

"I'd like to know," she replied "the name of the man I've been looking for."


	8. Chapter 8

"I'd like to know," she replied "the name of the man I've been looking for."

Looking for him?

Kisame remembered what Kakuzu had told him on their way to the forest. _"__This kid has the ability to identify her enemy's type of energy. She seems to take an interest on large __amounts__ of chakra, so even if she managed to escape, she probably would try to make contact with you somehow."_

That man was good at making a profile of people, wasn't he? It was probably because of his age.

Since she specialized on chakra absorption, there was a large possibility of her being truly searching for him. Probably the girl heard rumors about the "Tailless Bijū". His grin returned to its usual form, as he felt Samehada getting anxious to start the fight.

He took an offensive position. "I'll take that as your last wish, then. Kisame Hoshigaki, pleasure to meet you."

Kisame threw himself against the girl and brandished his sword. Liv moved backwards quickly, barely avoiding being hit.

He kept attacking rapidly, as she dodged his movements with a comparable speed.

"You can't run away forever"

The giant blade crushed a tree violently while following the kunoichi's movements. With every movement, a strange sensation ran through his arms: Samehada was agitated, craving for this girl's chakra. Could her energy be that good?

The Zombie Combo would be there at any moment, so if he wanted to let his sword have a taste of her he had to be quick.

The blue-skinned shinobi made a water clone and sent it after the girl; she kept dodging the movements with the same speed she did before. Just as he saw how she started to struggle because of the hasty attacks, he joined the action and swung his sword against her once again.

Liv didn't have time to react, and had no choice but to defend herself with her bare arms. The sword stopped a centimeter before it scratched her skin, allowing Kisame to realize he was covering them with a chakra shield. He couldn't help but smirk. "Gotcha."

He felt Samehada slowly growing, consuming the girl's chakra flow. He heard Liv let out a small gasp, as his blade gave a growl of satisfaction. Since it was so happy, her chakra must have been very good. It was rare to see it like that.

The shinobi's eyes suddenly widened for a second:

Something changed.

The sword stopped absorbing her chakra abruptly.

Kisame was bewildered; Samehada had never done anything like that before.

The kunoichi pushed the gigantic sword away and directed her fist to his opponent's face. The blue-skinned man backed away on time, going out of his shock. He clenched the blade tightly. What was going on? It had suddenly become calm, as if it couldn't take any more chakra.

The shinobi glared at the woman in front of him. She was panting, visibly tired. How could she stop the sword from draining her chakra?

"I underestimated you, didn't I? No one had ever taken such an effect over Samehada. I wonder what you exactly did... "Kisame couldn't hide the bother in his voice, but he spoke just as he usually did. "You couldn't have stopped your own chakra flow, how low is it possible to descrease your energy level?"

Liv smirked. "It's simpler than that." She said. "That sword in your hands won't do anything I don't want it to do. It is rightfully mine."

Kisame beyond annoyed: he was mad. Was she mocking him, or she really thought he'd buy that?

He looked at Samehada once again. It was still. As still as he had never seen it before.

What the hell had she done?

It was the girl's turn to attack: she ran against him once again, aiming a kick at his torso. Kisame placed his sword on the way as a shield, but the force of the kick still pushed him a few meters away. His weapon remained still; as if it was completely inanimate, making the blue-skinned man grit his teeth.

What the _fuck _had she done?

Before any of them could make another move, A silver-haired figure appeared, barely allowing the kunoichi to protect herself with her arms once again as he attacked her with his oversized scythe.

Black, thick threads wrapped around her ankles, sweeping her off her feet with facility. Liv let out a pained gasp as her head hit the floor, which turned in to a scream when a sharpened object went through her shoulder. Hidan licked the blood off the red blade, as he marked the Jashin symbol on the floor. "Now we'll see if you'd like to mock me again, whore."

Hidan's form changed. His skin had turned dark, covered with white, bone-shaped marks. The jashinist smiled viciously as he took his spear and drilled his own stomach. A cry of pain and a mad laughter filled the air. "How's that? How do you like the pain, you fucking bitch?"

The scene was repeated several times. The albino avoided vital points to make the suffering endure, but before he could finish her, the girl passed out and fell to the floor.

"Huh? You gave us such a battle before; don't tell me this is all you can manage." Hidan raised his spear once more, aiming for his heart. "Wake up now! Or you'll wake up in he..." A strong hand held his arm firmly.

"What the fuck are you doing, dipshit?" yelled the jashinist, glaring at the fellow Akatsuki. "Let me go, you blue bastard!"

"Kisame, I hate to agree with Hidan, but back off. Why are you doing this?" said Kakuzu, glaring at the taller shinobi.

"Just wait until we meet up with Itachi. I want to know something before you're done with her."

"WHAT?"

Kisame looked down to Hidan. "Chill out, she wouldn't be able to go anywhere in that condition, even if she was conscious. Let me find out what I want to know and you'll do whatever you want with her."

"You better have a good reason for this, Kisame." growled the elder shinobi.

"Seriously? You're going to let his have his way?" yelled furiously the Jashinist.

"We already waited three days to capture her. It won't do us any harm to wait a couple of hours to kill her."

The jashinist cursed as twice as much as he usually did on their way back. Kisame lifted the kunoichi's body over Samehada, walking beside his partners. He couldn't tell them why he wanted her alive for a little longer; it already hurt his pride to have struggled in a battle against a woman, but he was still concerned about his weapon... Samehada was still as quiescent as the girl it carried.

The shinobi still doubted what he had said was true, but if she had turned the sword into an inanimate object, and had attempted to take it with her, she should be able to turn it back to its normal state.

A familiar sensation ran through the shinobis' bodies. Hidan kept cursing under his breath, and Kakuzu exhaled audibly. "We'll have to attend this first I guess"

The Akatsuki closed their eyes to meet the other six holograms of their partners. Pein's voice was the first one to speak:

"I'm glad all you all responded with velocity. I will make this very quick, so listen to me carefully. Our communication system has been intercepted; by Orochimaru, we believe, so it is unsafe to send messages in this media. I need you to go back to the main headquarters to receive instructions as soon as possible. I believe you were still on duty, Kakuzu, Hidan?"

"We are about to end with this job." replied the masked shinobi. "However, we were in the need to take a hostage, so we may be a little delayed."

"Bring them here. We can't afford to lose any more time, and won't be able to communicate any longer until we fix this."

"...Understood." replied Kakuzu reluctantly. He knew the jashinist would start swearing until his tounge fell off, but he was too tired to argue.

[...]

The bearded politician looked at the motionless body in front of him, visibly disturbed.

Hidan almost let out a snicker. What a crime boss this Tenzen Daikoku was: he couldn't even stand to be in front of a simple corpse.

"I'm impressed; you finished your task with an incomparable speed. I couldn't have expected less from the Akatsuki."

Kakuzu made no comment about the man's compliment and closed the deal, handing the body of a brown haired woman to the yakuza and receiving the two briefcases with the payment. The Zombie duo exited the castle and headed to the Great Naruto Bridge, where Itachi and Kisame had been waiting for them with the still unconscious kunoichi.

"Finally, it's fucking over" Said Hidan with pleasure. The only thing left to do was to wait, and then he could kill the stupid woman at last. As the four shinobi walked through the bridge, Kakuzu glanced at the blue-skinned man silently. He seemed to be elsewhere, estranged. The emerald eyed shinobi wondered what had that Liv girl done to make him so concerned. He then looked at said girl; laying over the gigantic sword, evidently in pain even if she was not alert yet. Kakuzu had to recognize that he still felt some curiosity for her and wanted to know what exactly that technique of hers was. After all, learning such things would be useful for the sort of missions he used to do in Akatsuki.

"We'll see who you are soon enough", thought the shinobi to himself.


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N: **Finally, after 30 pages I made it to the Akatsuki base! I never thought it would take me that long, seriously. From now on, everything will go a bit faster I promise! thanks to everyone who has put up with my slowness, and to the ones who have reviewed/favorited the story, it really means a lot. Anyway, enjoy the chapter (:

* * *

[...]

It took the shinobis five days to arrive to the Akatsuki Base, traveling through the Land of Fire's border. It was past midnight when Konan met them at the entrance and led them to Pein. The rest of the members with already there except for Zetsu, who was in charge of guarding the zone.

"I will have to collect your rings. You will have to return here after every mission to receive new instructions, until we are able to make replacements for them. Their mechanism is complex, so I calculate this will last for about two months." told them the Akatsuki leader. The possessor of the Rinnegan landed his eyes the girl over Kisame's sword. "Is that the... hostage?" Pein stared at the kunoichi with a blank expression, hiding his mild curiosity. The girl was covered in her own, dry blood; barely breathing,. Considering her state, it was a miracle that she was still alive.

Kakuzu nodded. "She seems to possess certain abilities that caught our eye. We were planning to dispose of her after acknowledging what they are."

"I see. In that case, I'd like to know about those abilities myself." Pein kept his eyes fixed in their hostage as he spoke. "But we can't do much until she regains consciousness. You will have to heal some of those wounds to quicken her recovery, we'll fix a bed in the dungeons until then. Lock her up and have a rest, we will take care of her later" The masked shinobi nodded and beckoned Kisame to follow him.

[...]

Kisame lowered Liv to the small bed that had been placed on the cell and stared at her for a couple of seconds. During their short battle she hadn't tried to do a single ninjutsu; she used great amounts of chakra to damage the enemy instead. He guessed that was the reason she hadn't recovered; she was almost out if vital energy. What if she never woke up at all? During their traveling, she hadn't once appeared to be recovering; she hadn't gotten any worse, but she'd still be useless if she didn't open her eyes. Samehada was on a similar state, no matter how much chakra the shinobi tried to transfer to it. The blue-skinned man had no choice but to let her recovery up to Kakuzu, and that was not much of his liking. He unconsciously frowned: If this damn girl had screwed his weapon up forever...

"Kisame." The elder shinobi's voice interrupted his thoughts, but he didn't look back to the emerald eyes observing him. "What happened before we arrived?"

Kisame did not reply immediately. Kakuzu also seemed to be interested in her. Why?

"She claimed to know things about Samehada that are alien to me."

Kakuzu did not reply, aware that the taller shinobi was not telling the truth, or at least half of it.

"Have some sleep. I'll get her back to her senses in the morning."

[...]

Kakuzu lied awake over his bed. The shinobi couldn't sleep, he had plenty of unanswered questions in his mind

"_There is no pattern at all, I didn't have a reason to kill them._"

That was the biggest lie he had heard in his whole life. That technique wasn't normal, and she didn't pick just random victims. The emerald-eyed shinobi hadn't been looking at the whole picture; he had thought the only link between the victims was Tenzen Daikoku, since they were all rich and had plenty of influences in the zone... But if she had an interest for him, she would have ended him in a blink.

However, Kakuzu confirmed just an hour ago that he had made a mistake by just taking _alive_ people in consideration. Every single of the murdered men were either related or had worked with former members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Midst at a point, and what Kisame had told him only made the shinobi believe he was going on the right track. Kakuzu knew he wouldn't wait until morning to get his answers. If he did so, he wouldn't be able to ask all that he wanted with his partners beside him. He silently got out of his room and went down to the dungeons once again.

Liv was on the very exact position Kisame had left her in. Kakuzu lighted the torch of the small cell and sat by the bed, looking at the girl beside him. He placed a couple of fingers on her neck, checking her chakra flow. It was barely there at all. The masked man lifted the kunoichi's shirt slightly, uncovering her stomach. If he remembered correctly, Hidan had focused on stabbing the spear where her uterus should be. "That sick bastard..." he muttered, placing his hand over her abdomen. The wounds were deep, but it wasn't something Kakuzu couldn't fix. As he worked, the emerald-eyed man saw the girl's expression soften; relieved from the pain, but her chakra levels had not increased a single bit. The man sighed, and started transferring some of his chakra to Liv's body. Or at least he tried.

Kakuzu didn't understand why, but just as his chakra was about to pass through her skin, the kunoichi's body would reject the transference. He repeated the process on different spots, different chakra ranges, even elemental chakra, but the result was the very same. The shinobi frowned. She had absorbed his chakra before, so it did not make any sense. How could she specialize in chakra absorption if her body rejected someone else's vital energy? The masked man reviewed the events of that night in his mind.

What was different this time?

Oh...

The answer that came to Kakuzu's mind was not pleasant. It was the very opposite of that word, which made him brush the thought off immediately. "That's just ridiculous..." There _had _to be other way. Kakuzu made a last attempt to transfer his chakra, placing his fingers over her lips. Nothing.

He stared at the girl for a couple of seconds, thinking of another alternative, but none crossed his mind. Why would he have to degrade himself like that? "Che..."

He let out an annoyed sigh. The simple thought of it bothered the shinobi... He despised the damn woman after all. Besides, if Hidan found out, he wouldn't let him live nor die with it...But this could be his only chance to make them any question." She wouldn't be in the right to say anything if she actually woke up, he told himself. Moreover, Hidan won't come around, he sleeps like a rock.

Kakuzu pulled his mask down reluctantly, and looked at Liv's sleeping face. Why him? He couldn't help but curse under his breath. "This better fucking work..." He slowly approached the girl's face and placed his lips over hers.

The seconds went by, each one of them were more and more awkward. The emerald-eyed shinobi kept still, unsure of what he was doing. It had probably been about 70 years since he felt so dull, but it wasn't the worst part: Absolutely nothing was happening. He sat up once again, feeling like he was making a fool of himself. Of course it wasn't going to work. He pulled his mask on again. His anger and his frustration grew even more. He would have to wait until he found a way to wake her, and for Pain to use his Rinnegan on her.

He stayed there quietly for a couple of minutes. At first, she had been complicated to defeat, and now she was being even harder to cure...

Kakuzu _almost_ cringed when he felt a figure standing beside the cell's open door. "What are you doing here, Uchiha?"

"I was about to ask you the same."

"We have to make her regain consciousness to get her to talk, don't we?" growled back the elder shinobi. How long had he been standing there?

"I believe the leader said that would be taken care of tomorrow." replied the black haired man, with his red eyes fixed on the other Akatsuki.

"I just want this to be over already."

"Have you done any progress?" asked the younger ninja. Kakuzu's lips twitched under his mask.

"I healed the main wound, but there hasn't been a change on her energy levels. Her body is rejecting the chakra transmission."

"She performs chakra absorption techniques, doesn't she?" It took Kakuzu less than a second to realize what Itachi was implying. "Have you considered a prevention seal yet?"

The idea hadn't crossed the masked shinobis mind, since it was a very rare thing. Some ninjas struggle with the control of their chakra flow, so they have a seal placed on their brain to help then inhibit their energy production if necessary. She could maneuver her chakra to a fair extent; however, considering the amounts of chakra she handled, it could be possible for her to need such a thing.

He performed a series of hand seals and placed his palm over Liv's forehead, as he closed his eyes. He found himself in front of the girl's brain. He wasn't very skilled on Mind-Reading jutsus, but he knew the basics. He'd hopefully wouldn't take much time to find the seal.

He put his hand on the brain, and watched as several scrolls emerged from it.

"Found it."

With another couple of hand seals, he placed his hand on one of the scrolls, watching its characters starting to morph. A strong force shook him from the girl's mind abruptly.

He opened his eyes, and found a pair of wide, hazel orbs staring back at him. "Finally." Her shocked expression reminded Kakuzu of a startled rabbit.

Liv hesitantly parted her lips, and managed to articulate in a low voice. "Why?"

"You still have some questions to answer me."

She kept quiet, still wide-eyed. Was this really the girl he met before?

"I'll do it, Kakuzu-san." said a third voice in the room. Itachi stepped inside the cell, approaching the girl.

Kakuzu remained silent, moving aside. He didn't like the idea of letting the Uchiha do something for him, but he didn't have much of a choice.

The younger shinobi's Sharingan bore into confused, hazel eyes. The masked man looked at the scene in front of him; for Kakuzu, it had been just a couple of seconds, but he was aware it could have already been days in the kunoichi's mind. The dim light didn't let Kakuzu trust his eyes, but he could have sworn he saw the fellow Akatsuki member frown for a moment. Itachi's Sharingan faded, leaving a pair of dark pools in its place. Neither Liv nor he said a word.

It was the emerald-eyed man who broke the silence. "Well?"

"She represents no harm for us." replied the other shinobi. "She's a missing nin from Otogakure, with barely any information about Akatsuki. She has an interest in Kisame's sword because of its properties, which is the reason she killed the men on the Land of Water while looking for information in hopes to catch the Mizukage's attention; facilitating her search."

"What about her justsu?"

"You were right, it is a variation of the Execution by Kiss technique. She made her own jutsu by making a few modifications."

Kakuzu looked at their hostage, who had a concerned look on her face. "And she wanted to find Samehada because..."

"We better let her rest, Kakuzu-san. If she doesn't, she'll be too weak in the morning to answer Pein's and Kisame's questions."

"Itachi, Oi! Listen to me, Uchiha!" Before Kakuzu could finish his protest, the black-haired shinobi was gone. He gritted his teeth in anger. "That damn kid..."

The masked man looked back at Liv, who still had a stern expression, staring into space. Without a word, Kakuzu exited the cell, slamming the door shut.

/

Liv woke with a strange sensation on her head: Something... no, someone was inside her. Dozens of memories crossed her mind violently, startling her. "Out..." she thought. She wanted the feeling to stop. She wanted this person out of her head. "Out!"

She eyes fluttered wide open, meeting a familiar emerald gaze. Fear and shock ran through her whole body, remembering what happened in the woods. She was supposed to be dead. More than dead.

"Why?" she managed to say in a barely audible voice.

"You still have some questions to answer me."

"I'll do it, Kakuzu-san." said and unfamiliar voice, but she could not see the person in the position she was in. Kakuzu stepped aside, allowing her eyes to see a pale figure with dark hair.

His eyes... Being under the man's crimson gaze made her feel even more uncomfortable, but she couldn't look away. Kakuzu and the dark room seemed to fade away, leaving her with those eyes. A sudden light blinded her eyes for a moment.

An intense pain attacked her head. Liv wanted to scream, but no sound would come out of her throat. "What is this?"

She looked around her, finding herself in that horrible room, which haunted her in her dreams. Her eyes switched from side to side, trying to avoid looking at anything in specific. But then, they landed on a small girl lying over an iron table, needles and tubes surrounded every corner of her body.

Another flash of light made her close her eyes once again.

She was now on a dark alley with the same girl. The little girl was curled up behind a dumpster, crying. Her eyes looked up to the alley's exit, finding four men and a woman with auburn red hair looking at her.

One more flash.

She was before a flower field that she remembered very well. "Stop it..."

The girl was there once again with the auburn-haired woman. "Fūka-san, what are these flowers called?" asked the young girl.

Another flash of light crossed Liv's eyes.

"Please... stop..."

The girl was in another dark room. Her blood was everywhere, and she lied down as that man crushed her with his feet to the floor. "Don't you ever think of running away again, Liv."

She kept watching her memories flash before her eyes without any control over them. "Stop already... please..."

The pain was suddenly gone. She was back in that cell with her captors.

What... The young man's eyes had turned completely dark, without a trace of ever having that crimson coloring.

"Well?" said Kakuzu's voice, looking at the man. Liv knew very well, that when he got what he wanted, he would dispose of her. She couldn't die yet. She had made it this far... she couldn't just die in there. The kunoichi turned to the black haired man with a pleading look.

"She represents no harm for us. She's a missing nin from Otogakure, with barely any information about Akatsuki..." She stopped listening to the man.

Akatsuki. So that's who these people were...

"And she wanted to find Samehada because..." "We better let her rest, Kakuzu-san. If she doesn't, she'll be too weak in the morning to answer Pein's and Kisame's questions." "Itachi, Oi! Listen to me, Uchiha!"

Liv didn't look up to them. The man named Itachi left without saying a word, quickly followed by Kakuzu. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain crossed her shoulder... "Perhaps I should sleep... I can't do much in this state..." She quietly fell asleep, trying to void her mind.

/

Itachi sat quietly in his room. This was no good.

He had lied to Kakuzu, in a way at least: If everything he had seen on the girl's mind was exactly as it seemed, her mere existence was a threat for the organization.

"There could be more where she came from..." He thought. That cursed white snake, how much did he really know?

He would wait a bit to see how things turned out. It wouldn't be prudent to speak with the leader right away after all.


	10. Chapter 10

/

Liv had a dreamless sleep, but that didn't keep her from tossing and turning uncomfortably, courtesy of the events of the night before. The cell was dark, cold, quiet... dry. She was awaken by her mouth pleading for water. "Too dry..." The chocolate-haired woman breathed in heavily, and opened her eyes wide when she realized that she was not the only person in the room.

A scream tried to come out of her throat, muffled by a pale hand that quickly covered her mouth. She was greeted once again by a crimson stare boring into her. Liv closed struggled under the man's grasp, but the pain caused in her wounds eventually forced her to stay still.

"If you want to live, you'll have to keep quiet" warned Itachi.

The kunoichi opened her eyes again, avoiding the man's gaze; she didn't want to revive the experience she had before.

"Look at me."

"Like hell I will" she thought. The shinobi got his hand away from Liv's face, but she could still feel his eyes fixed on her.

"Would you rather let them see _everything _I saw last night?"

Her eyes went unwillingly to Itachi. When she tried to look away, she realized she was already inside of his genjutsu again. However, it was very different from the time before: She didn't feel any kind of pain, and they were both still on the small cell.

"Listen carefully" told her Itachi. "This is what we are going to do..."

/

The shark man followed Pein, Kakuzu and Itachi through the hideout, on their way to the hostage's cell. His sword was firmly wrapped with bandages, holding on Kisame's back.

He hoped everything would be quick, so Hidan could quit his bitching and moaning about how he had ruined a perfect time for a sacrifice.

He hadn't slept well at all, still bothered by Samehada's state, annoyed by the girl's words.

How could she say the sword was rightfully hers? It had always been one of the blades of the Seven Swordsmen of the Midst, and she was certainly not a nin from Kirigakure. She probably was just trying to taunt him, but it was working nevertheless.

But then again, how did she do that to Samehada?

They arrived to the cell and opened the door, finding her sitting quietly on the bed. Liv looked at them hesitantly, first to him, then to Kakuzu, but she avoided Itachi's eyes. Her hazel eyes finally landed over the Akatsuki leader, who also looked at her attentively.

"It seems you've caused us some trouble all by yourself." Pein started. She looked at him with an almost blank expression and nodded, as if beckoning him to continue. "Who sent you?"

"Nobody" she answered quietly after a couple of seconds.

"We'll see that." Her expression could hide her emotions perfectly, but Pein could see concern in her eyes.

Kakuzu had told him the mission events in detail, but he did not understand the reason he was interested in her until the elder shinobi mentioned the money loss (He, after all, chose Kakuzu as Akatsuki's treasurer for a reason) and her connection with Kisame's sword. The latter ninja had been forced to admit the weapon had an odd reaction to her chakra in battle, which led the Akatsuki leader and the emerald-eyed man to deduce she had acquired information about the weapon by either one of the Great Shinobi Nations or Orochimaru. Either way, it was necessary to find the source of leaked information promptly; the Akatsuki could not be sure if it was merely information about the Seven Swordsmen's blades or not after all. There was always a chance that someone had sent her particularly to get her hands on Samehada for being the weapon of an Akatsuki member; in which case meant more information about the organization could be revealed as well. They had to be cautious.

Someone had already broken into the rings' system; the organization was forced to increase its security measures as much as possible.

Since he was in a crowded room, Pein had not been able either his Naraka or his Human path, so it would be more difficult to extract information. The Akatsuki leader connected his stare with the girl's, and began the interrogation.

Kisame watched the motionless scene in front of him. He noticed it looked just like when Itachi used his Mangekyō over his enemies. In all the time he had spent in Akatsuki, he had never seen their leader use his Rinnegan on anyone; which made him most curious about the legendary dōjutsu.

After a couple of minutes, Liv let out a small gasp, recovering the signs of life in her eyes. It was over.

"A missing nin from Otogakure."

Kakuzu glanced at the Uchiha beside him. "So what he said was true, then." he thought.

"She seems to have taken the chance to flee from Orochimaru's control when he attacked Konohagakure two months ago; therefore, he did not send her after us. The murders in the Land of Water were an attempt to gain information about Samehada exclusively, but she was not aware of who was the present wielder of the sword." explained the Akatsuki leader. Underneath his neutral expression, there was a hint of annoyance. "However, she seems to have had direct contact with your weapon before, Kisame. Unfortunately, her memories were altered and I was not able to deepen into details. She was a direct threat to you, not to the organization."

/

Liv looked down to the floor, making every effort no to look impressed. She had not trusted the black haired ninja when he said he'd block her memories, but it hap apparently worked just as planned. Yet the reason why he had done it was alien to her awareness.

Perhaps it was because of...

"You still remember something about it, don't you? Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see a thing." The low voice of the man with the amethyst eyes interrupted her thoughts. "I will give you a chance to tell us what you know about the blade and repair the damage. If you refuse, we'll force the information out of you."

She glared at the Akatsuki leader (or at least she assumed he was, for the way he acted), and her mouth tensed a bit.

"Samehada, one of the Seven Swordsmen's blades. It possesses the title of Greatsword because of its chakra absorption ability and symbiotic relationship with the wielder. As you have seen, I have vague memories of meeting Fuguki Suikazan, the former wielder, but I can't remember why, or how I crossed paths with this man..." She looked at the man named Kisame; who looked mildly interested in what she had to say, before continuing hesitantly. "I just know the sword was meant to be mine, and that it responds to my command." Liv lifted her hand cautiously to beckon the blue-skinned man. "May I?"

Kisame hesitated, and looked at the man with the orange-red hair, who simply nodded. The shinobi handled the sword reluctantly. The hazel-eyed girl placed the oversized sword across her lap, and proceeded to take the bandages off carefully. She could feel the four pairs of eyes over her, but she tried not to look uncomfortable. When the bandages were off, she pressed a couple of fingers over one of Samehada's scales, causing them to start bleeding. The kunoichi took her fingers and placed them carefully in between the sword's jaws, and waited for a couple of seconds.

Much to Kisame's surprise, Samehada reacted, licking the girl's fingertips as its cutting edges visibly sharpened.

"I was meant to be this sword's wielder until the moment I died. Therefore, if I ordered it to become inanimate, it would only stop obeying the command if it tasted my blood. That is all I can remember."

Liv wrapped Samehada with the bandages once again, and handed it to the blue-haired man.

His interest almost completely covered by a mask of distrust.

"What were your motives to search for the sword?" asked Kakuzu's deep voice. The chocolate-haired woman turned her eyes his way, but didn't look straight into his piercing emerald eyes, aware that his glance would make it tough to hide anything at all.

"When Orochimaru returned to Otogakure, he'd notice my absence." she muttered. "Samehada would have increased my defense in case he decided to send someone after me."

Nobody said a thing for a short moment, before the amethyst-eyed man spoke once again. "Kisame, tell Konan to meet me after fixing a room for this girl."

The other four people of the room looked at him. Kakuzu looked pissed, Kisame and Liv were surprised and Itachi merely stared.

"Don't tell me you plan on letting her join us?" Said Kisame, visibly annoyed.

"Not quite." replied the Akatsuki leader. "She does not have any other information about us, but she does have information about Orochimaru, and he probably will be interested in getting her back. Moreover, she made you two struggle considerably, which means her strength could be used in our favor." He turned to Liv, who stared back in confusion.

"Itachi, I will test the girl as you suggested. But if she tries to betray us, I want you to use your Sharingan on her."

The black-haired shinobi kept quiet and gave a nodding glance.

/

Kisame could not understand how Konan wasn't surprised when she got the message. Well, the woman barely showed any emotions at all, but it was odd to be having to work with someone that was your hostage a few moments ago. The idea was certainly not of the shark man's liking, and he knew that Kakuzu wasn't pleased with the idea either.

He wondered how loud would Hidan yell when he found out he wasn't going to be able to sacrifice her to his God.

He probably wouldn't ever let him or his partner live it down. The thought of the zealot's swearing echoing though the whole base made Kisame loath the damn girl even more. And why would Itachi even suggest the leader to give her a chance to live? In all the years he had been working with him, this was a first. "He may not kill unless necessary, but to show any mercy..." It was just not like him. Moreover, had they even spoken before? Whichever were the Uchiha's reasons to keep her alive; it was a complete enigma to him.

He wandered in one of the stone passages; heading towards his room, when he passed by a swearing albino stomping his feet.

"Guess he already go the memo."

"Oi, blue bastard! Where the hell is Kakuzu? That fucking rag doll's got shit to explain. And whose godamn bright idea was it to bring that cunt here again? I'm so not letting this slip, bitch."

It had already started.

"I don't like it either, but if you can't just live with it go and tell that to Pein and leave me the fuck alone.". Kisame wasn't in the mood to deal with the brat. Without saying another word, he walked off.

"You bet I will, fucker!" he heard the jashinist scream.

The blue-skinned shinobi sighed. As if the day hadn't been bad enough: He had been almost all day in a meeting with the fellow members, and then did some useless attempts to make Samehada work once again. Then the girl fixed Samehada in the interrogation and ended up being practically being part of the team, and now he had just bumped into the second last person he wanted to see for the rest of the day. The only thing that could make it worse was... right in front of him.

Both he and the hazel-eyed girl had stopped on their track the moment they realized who was the person before them.

Just as he was about to take another step, her voice held him in place. "Is Samehada alright?"

"Shouldn't it?" He asked harshly. Wasn't she being a little too confident considering she was still on a dangerous position?

"Of course it should. I was just asking." She said in an almost apologetic tone. "No need to get all defensive." The shinobi started to think she could have some personality disorder. It wasn't normal to have that kind of mood shifts so suddenly.

"Just because Pein is going easy on you doesn't mean we're allies. Don't try being too friendly." spat them man scornfully.

"Are you guys against civil manners or something?"

Kisame immediately noted she was referring to Hidan, and recalled how pissed he was when he bumped into him. Probably she was the one who broke the news for him.

He couldn't help but smirk at the thought of the albino with a dumbfounded face.

"Hidan does. I just don't trust you, nor want to, for that matter."

"Well since I still want that fellow you're carrying, it'd be pretty dumb from you to trust me. But that doesn't mean we have to be hostile, does it?"

"Just stay out of my way and we'll be fine for now, kid." For the second time that day, he started to walk away from a conversation.

"Kid?" She started, moving in front of him with an annoyed expression. "Do I look like I'm 19 or something? I'm 26, and I really don't appreciate being called a kid, you know? Unless, of course, you don't mind me calling _you_ fish boy."

Kisame just stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't be serious, could she?

"I'm off. You really look like you could slit my throat right now. I'll se you around I guess… goodnight."

The shinobi looked at her until she went out of sight. This girl was just... "Weird."

/

"Shut the fuck up already, or I swear I'll kill you"

"As if you could, old bastard. Why the fuck didn't you say anything? If you hadn't let that damn shark have thing his way..."

"You really have a death wish, don't you?"

"Answer me, goddammit!"

"Go and bitch about it to the leader, it wasn't my decision." barked the elder shinobi. Hidan had simply broken into his room swearing like a sailor and insulting him the most incoherently way possible. As if he hadn't had enough for a day.

"I did! I fucking did! And the fucking carrot top practically sent me to go suck on a dick."

"You should follow the advice, then. I really don't feel like seeing your face, get the hell out."

"Like hell. This is all your fault and you're fucking paying for it old, stitched freak!

Kakuzu's hand flew from his arm to the jashinist's neck, throwing him against the wall out of the room.

The masked shinobi shut the door as he heard the violet-eyed man still cursing at him. He threw his back onto his bed hastily looking up at the ceiling. What the hell was going on inside Pein's head?

What angered him the most was the fact that the Uchiha was still sticking his nose when the girl's life was not of his business? The shinobi frowned, remembering the events of the night before. He was certain that the other Akatsuki saw something that had disturbed him, but the leader didn't mention anything that could have awakened any interest from the crimson-eyed boy for the woman.

"Perhaps I should keep an eye on him..." he thought.

But how was he supposed to act as though he could work with the damn succubus girl? The image of the girl throwing herself at him at the Inn flashed through his mind, making him angrier.

"She better not try anything odd from now on."


	11. Chapter 11

/

The echo of her steps resounded slightly though the dark, stone passage. She had gone through so many identical corridors by now, that she wasn't certain of having passed for that one already, but the kunoichi kept her pace steady in case she finally got to her destination.

The blue-haired woman who had presented herself as Konan the night before had awakened Liv, telling her that "Pein" (who Liv assumed, was the man with the orange-red hair) wished to see her.

Being fully on her senses once again, she couldn't help but notice she had a stoic, yet stunning face; which she could not hide even behind the heavy azure eye-shadow that she wore, matching her hair color.

After warning her not to delay, the mysterious kunoichi had stepped out of the room and disappeared though the dark hallway. Liv got out of her bed and got dressed in the clothes that had been left for her over the nightstand, and started walking as she tried to remember which way the blue-haired woman told her the stairs were.

Now, she was wondering if she would ever get there; orientation wasn't a thing she was particularly skilled at after all.

The monotone view was slightly altered as a figure grew closer in her vision range, revealing itself to be Kakuzu. The slightly startled woman looked at him, but the shinobi merely limited himself to glare at her as he walked off.

The hazel-eyed girl gave an inner sigh. His chakra's particular presence remained completely untamed, which, much to her displeasure, reminded her of how weakened she still was; her body, unfortunately, took ages to recover by itself. These thoughts, in turn, reminded her of a certain blue-skinned man. A small, slightly embarrassed smile crossed her face as she remembered her own reaction to being called a kid by a man that looked just a little older than her. She always had loathed being called a kid, even from an early age; it sounded derogative, at least for her.

She didn't even look like a kid… She did appear somewhat younger than she actually was, but that was to be expected from a ninja with chakra-absorption techniques. What actually made people think of her as a little lass, was generally her behavior. "I do act like a kid when someone calls me like that, huh?".

"Still, I do look my age, I'm not like that old Fūka hag..." she mumbled to herself.

She finally arrived to the large, spiral staris she had been looking for. However, she wasn't precisely happy to see who standed beside them. Itachi and Kisame stood there talking in a low voice, not noticing her presence The chocolate-haired girl hesitated, but she got herself to walk by them fast and quietly, avoiding to look at the pair of crimson eyes that kept fixed on her. "This guy..." she thought. "They're just too much alike."

/

Itachi stared at Liv as she disappeared, walking up the stairs.

"What is it then?" asked Kisame when it was safe to speak without her hearing again.

"You could use this in your favor, Kisame. She won't be able to attack you as long as she's here, and you could learn a thing or two to make her murder easier when the time comes."

Kisame remained quiet for a moment it. What could he be hiding to be so secretive? "I just hope you actually know what you're doing. You really aren't one to screw around, but all of this seems unlike you." The blue-skinned man turned around and started to walk away from his partner. "Be sure about something: If she gives me a single reason to do it, I won't hesitate to kill her."

Kisame knew perfectly that Itachi was not going to tell him anything about her; there wasn't a point to keep up with the conversation.

"Kisame." The taller shinobi stopped on his track, but he didn't turn around. "How long do you think it could take us to truly discern an enemy from a hazard?"

The blue-skinned man didn't answer right away, wondering the nature of the black-haired boy's question. Did he consider the girl a mere obstacle? Kisame didn't think so. "Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing." replied the younger shinobi, before he started to walk in the opposite direction.

Itachi drew himself away from his partner quietly, heading to on of the plenty of stone passages. "How long have you been listening?"

"A while." replied a low voice, as the body of its owner started to materialize beside the black-haired shinobi. "It is a strange interest you have in this girl, Itachi."

"It is strange that you don't seem concerned about what she represents. That woman is a proof of how much information Orochimaru can easily get about us. He is practically treading upon our heels."

The younger nin could feel a crimson eye looking at him behind Tobi's orange mask.

Tobi.

He'd rather call him like that, just as everyone else did. Itachi didn't like the idea of being walking beside another Uchiha, specifically Madara Uchiha.

"She isn't even a threat for us." replied the masked man. "We can use her in our favor as long as she id here."

Itachi suppressed the urge of gritting his teeth, keeping his neutral expression. The man beside him had always been a gifted liar, but he wasn't even trying to make him believe what he was saying. What the younger Uchiha could only make out of his reply was a "Don't ask, don't interfere." But then again, he could play the same game: Tobi wasn't the only one who could pretend.

"That is why I asked Pein to let her live. We could use more information about Otogakure; if we manage to fix her memories to their original state they might tell us how much Orochimaru knows."

Tobi didn't reply, but kept his eye fixed on the pale boy. "You did well, then. We'll take care of her all together from now on." With that, Itachi was alone once again, walking through the stone passages. The crimson-eyed shinobi kept thinking repeatedly of he small conversation, reading between the lines of the other man's reply: "Don't ask, don't interfere."

/

Liv stood in front of the large, stone table, at which end was sitting the amethyst-eyed man.

The room was large; or it could have just seemed to be, since the table was the only thing in it. It was very dark, just like the others; it reminded her awfully of Orochimaru's choice of hideouts.

Pein looked at the kunoichi in front of him, as though he was studying her. He asked a few questions about her abilities, which she replied with ease even if she did not understand the reason. He had looked inside her mind the evening before, hadn't he?

The Orange-red haired man proceeded to inform her she'd be assigned a mission with another Akatsuki member, and explained what did the mission consisted of.

"Our organization works generally in pairs. I will add you to one of the teams the teams from time to time if your help is needed, but for now, you will work with Zetsu. He is in charge of gathering information about the Hidden Villages and guarding the base." The Akatsuki leader turned to his side, tough nobody was standing beside him. "I want you to watch Konohagakure's surroundings. I leave this mission to your care."

To Liv's surprise, something suddenly emerged from the place Pein was staring at. A man with green hair and golden eyes looked at him, and then to her.

He was the strangest looking ninja the kunoichi had seen in the base: A large Venus flytrap was located on his sides, surrounding the man's profile. If that wasn't odd enough, the right half of his body was completely black, and the left one was white. Hell, Orochimaru was paler than ivory, but not even the snake man could compare to that skin color.

She could have sworn the white half was slightly grinning at her, while the other glared.

"Leave it to us, leader." **"****It won't take us long."**

Liv was so stunned by the man's appearance that she barely realized each half had spoken by itself. She couldn't say that surprised her after looking at him, though.

"You will leave right now." Spoke Pein, still looking towards the green-haired man. "We can't keep wasting our time." He then looked at Liv once again. "If she tries something suspicious, you are free to kill her."

This time, even if the black half didn't have a visible mouth, both parts of the man named Zetsu seemed to grin.

"**As you say."**

/

"So, she is now one of us, hm?" asked Deidara. All the Akatsuki members but Zetsu were gathered in the room. Everyone glanced at Pein.

"She's being tested." replied the Akatsuki leader. "She is not to be told any more than necessary for now, so avoid speaking about Akatsuki with her."

"Has she left already?" Asked Konan, receiving a nod as a reply.

Kisame remained silent, giving quick glances at Itachi occasionally; he seemed to be in another place since he had left him a few hours before... The tallest shinobi wondered if something happened.

"Konan and I will hand you substitute rings, we won't be able to communicate, but you'll be able to enter and exit the base. Everyone has been assigned a new mission for now; you may leave as soon as possible."

With that, all the ninjas exited the room.

"I still wonder what's so special about her, hm." commented the blond shinobi. "What do you think, danna?"

"As long as she's of any use to kill Orochimaru, I don't care about her" replied Sasori. "Let's go now; I don't want to keep waiting any longer."

/

Liv couldn't help but stare at the golden-eyed shinobi that walked beside her. "Akatsuki is full of ninjas with odd chakra flows" she thought to herself.

Kakuzu's had the best quality she had seen: It was composed of distinct elemental chakra merged in one, concentrated in five points that seemed to have life on their own. Then, there was Kisame's chakra: He had a ridiculously high amount of it, even greater (in quantity) than Kakuzu's. Liv had also sensed that morning something odd about Pein's energy: She had thought his piercings were just a matter of style, until she realized his chakra emanated from them... Where did his energy come from? That remained unknown to her. And now, she traveled with a man that was not only strange looking; but one with a very particular kind of chakra too. It reminded her of the boys and girls she had met during Orochimaru's experiments... It looked as if it had been altered irreversibly.

"Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Liv had been completely absent-minded, not realizing it had been a long time since she fixed her eyes on the man.

"**You've been staring at us for a while now."**

"What kind of relationship did Akatsuki have with Orochimaru?" The chocolate-haired girl asked; her curiosity was too big to suppress.

"**Orochimaru was an Akatsuki member."** "He quitted because of Itachi."

Itachi? His crimson eyes flashed inside her mind. Was that man stronger than Orochimaru?

"He wanted Itachi's body?"

"Yes. But Itachi defeated him, and he left."

Liv kept quiet for a moment. If this Itachi Uchiha was more powerful than Orochimaru himself, she had even more reasons not to trust those eyes... She had fled from the White Snake's control, just as many had done, or at least tried before... However, she did not know Orochimaru had fled from someone himself. "I've only been lucky… these men are stronger than I thought..."

It was her turn to notice the green-haired man had been staring at her.

"**For someone who served Orochimaru, you really know little about him, don't you?"**

"My memories were altered" she growled back. "So it's normal not to know much."

She didn't understand why, but the shinobi smiled.

"You are different from them."

Liv looked at Zetsu, visibly confused. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing..." Before she could reply, he continued. "We are finally here."

[...]

The Third Hokage was dead. Every single person they were able to listen to, still spoke from the tragic event, even months after. Some said there was a chance of a man named Danzō becoming the next Hokage, while others spoke of Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin, succeeding her teacher.

After a while, they decided to sit near a treetop near by an entrance to the village.

"Looks like Itachi and Kisame are on duty here as well." said Zetsu, pointing to a couple of cloaked figures walking in the distance, presumably towards Shukuba Town… they weren't far from there after all. "Shouldn't we take a closer look on them?" **"****Don't be an idiot. They have to be ****discrete****, and so do ****we****."** "You can be such a killjoy sometimes…"

Liv stared quietly at the silhouettes of the other Akatsuki. Why Konoha?

"Let's move, then. We'll only be a burden for them here." she said.

[...]

Liv had been checking with her nose constantly the area where Itachi and Kisame were in. Everything had been clam, until about an hour back: both of them started fighting against another two ninjas, and now they seemed to be fighting another one in a close location.

The hazel-eyed girl thought there was a possibility that she and Zetsu had also been detected, which was confirmed by an explosive kunai that was thrown at them. The Akatsuki member and Liv managed to dodge the explosion, and turned to their attackers: a pair of Konoha ANBU stood before them.

"Tenzō, I will go after the Akatsuki, I'll leave the girl to you." Said a female voice.

"Understood." replied a male one.

Without hesitation, the male ANBU ran towards Liv, throwing another explosive kunai at her. She jumped out of the way, landing a few meters away from the explosion.

Before she could react, she found herself locked inside a wood dome. "A wooden Kekkei Genkai? But how..."

She still didn't have much chakra with her, but she didn't have much of a choice. She concentrated her energy around her arms, and hit one of the wooden walls. A small crack appeared on its surface. She kept hitting the wall repeatedly, until she finally broke free and charged against her opponent. She kept close to him, to prevent receiving another wooden release attack. She couldn't understand how someone could have such ability: wasn't the Senju clan eliminated long ago?

One of Liv's fists managed to find its way to the ANBU's face, breaking his mask as a result. He jumped backwards; as the shattered mask fell to the floor, revealing a pale man with brown hair. He was looking at her in shock, with his dark eyes widened. But the shinobi wasn't the only one in shock: Liv was astonished to find that face behind the cat ANBU mask. "You are..."

A water attack hit one of the ANBU's sides; throwing him against his partner, who was attempting to attack the sly green-haired man. Liv turned in surprise to the direction where the attack came from, finding a familiar blue-skinned man and a black-haired boy.

"They're after us. We have to get away, fast." Said Itachi. The kunoichi nodded and the four ninjas fled, leaving a couple of unconscious ANBU lying on the floor.

During their runaway, Liv thought of the brown-haired shinobi. "He was one of those boys..."

The kunoichi remembered it perfectly:

She was about seven years old when a group of abducted children arrived to Otogakure. She particulary recalled there was a brown haired child, crying desperately, who had been silenced by a ninja's threats. Liv had simply stared at the scene, and after a while, she realized a couple of dark eyes were observing her... The boy looked at her, probably asking himself way she wasn't among them. She felt pity for him: he was even younger than her; she knew how much pain he'd be going through…

They didn't stay for long in the Village, since they were to be sent with Orochimaru to Konohagakure, or so she heard. The last thing she knew about the children was that Orochimaru's experiment had been a failure, and all the small boys and girls were left for dead. "I can't believe one of them survived..."

"Hurry up, kid! Kisame's voice interrupted her thoughts. They'll have us surrounded if we don't move fast"

"I told you I'm not a damn kid, blue balls!" The next thing she knew was that the shark man had pushed her back; almost making her trip, and then she was being carried up over Kisame's shoulder.

"I can perfectly run, you know! Put me down!"

"We don't have time to hear you bitching, alright?"

The kunoichi gritted her teeth. Damn shark... As much as she hated to admit it, she did understand why Samehada he was the current possessor of Samehada: That quantity of chakra made him a perfect wielder for the sword.

The Akatsuki kept jumping from tree to tree at a considerable speed, until they lost track of the ANBU team.

The shinobis stopped for a minute to rest, and the tallest shinobi dropped Liv to the floor, gaining a complain from the girl.

"Ow! I could have perfectly run by myself, you didn't have to do that."

"How fast did you think you could go with that wound?" The blue-skinned man pointed to the bleeding side of her torso. She looked down to her body in surprise.

"When did that happen?" She thought.

But a sharp pain on her limbs answered that for her: She needed chakra; her body was quickly reacting to the action and the lack of energy she had.

"Kakuzu can treat you when we get back" said Zetsu. "Let's keep moving." She nodded, and followed the Akatsuki towards the base.

/

"Tenzō, are you awake? Answer me, please."A familiar voice made him open his eyes, meeting with the lights on the hospital ceiling. He slowly tuned around to find a man with a bird mask sitting beside him. "Ah, I'm glad you woke up at last."

"What happened?"

"They escaped. You guys were injured by one of the Akatsuki, and they took the chance to run away."

The brown-haired man remained silent. "How is she?"

"Don't worry about her, they already let her out. We had a lot of luck compared to Kakashi-sempai..."

"What happened?" he immediately asked with a concerned tone.

"..He... He fought Itachi Uchiha… hasn't woken up yet... It seems Itachi used his genjutsu over him." replied the ANBU captain. "But don't worry about it, Tenzō! I know he'll recover soon enough."

He remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"It's not safe to call him by his codename in here, especially with his mask off." interrupted the voice of an elderly woman. He realized the two ANBU members weren't the only ones in the room: The Konoha council was standing beside the door, looking at him with their usual snobbish expressions. "It's good to be home, huh?" he thought.

"It'll be better if you take some time off." Started Homura, observing him. He could note a hint of concern behind his glasses. "Consider it a mission if you want. We'll call you Yamato for now."

"Understood, sorry about that…" told them masked ANBU, before turning to him once again. "I'll call a nurse to let them know you are awake, ok?"

Yamato watched the ANBU member turn around and leave the room. The coucil left short after.

He recalled his short battle with that girl: Somehow, she looked familiar to him, but he couldn't really figure out why... probably it had been his imagination.

Yamato closed his eyes, immediately falling asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

/

"Why didn't he hand you over the sword for a moment? You could have cured yourself alone with it."

"You really think that knucklehead would let me close to his precious weapon after what happened?"

That was pretty much the whole conversation between Kakuzu and Liv inside her room, as the shinobi healed her wounds. The phrases that were mentioned repeatedly for the following hour were just "Keep still, idiot" from the emerald-eyed man, and "It hurts" protests from the hazel-eyed kunoichi.

When he was finished, he walked out of the room without a single word, not giving her a chance to say anything herself.

"Thank you?" she thought, as the room's door was closed. At least she was feeling better. She could have blamed Kisame for depriving her from a good source of energy, but truth be told, she didn't know how severe the wound could get if he hadn't carried her for while on their way back.

She laid in the bed for a couple of seconds. She probably looked like a fiasco in her first mission, didn't she? It wasn't truly her fault: Her body's flaw was its very low chakra production; so she couldn't have recovered fully since she arrived to the base for the first time, and she hadn't been able to obtain any from other sources either. It's not like it was her favorite thing to go kissing random strangers, but, thanks to Samehada, it was the absorption technique that worked most efficiently for her, and more importantly, the one that could be done the fastest.

"But I'm not like the old Fūka..." she mumbled. Liv actually respected her former teacher; after all, she had taken care of her when she ran away, even though she was a member of a gang that had to rob in order to survive everyday. But the chocolate-haired woman couldn't deny the fact that the auburn-haired woman acted like a cynical vixen. Nevertheless, she had to give credit to the woman: at least she wasn't a hypocrite who pretended to be a saint.

Liv wondered if Fūka was still alive... it had been about 11 years since then... She could barely believe how fast the time passed.

"No, it didn't..." She had suffered inhuman amounts of pain with Orochimaru everyday, mostly because of her stubborn behavior. It she hadn't overheard that conversation between him and that man, the fact of being still alive would be a mystery for her.

Speaking of conversations, she wondered if it would be a good idea to have one with Itachi, she was not sure if he had completely done it because of his motives or expected some payback, but he still helped her after all. But which were his motives exactly? That thought held her back. He was most likely connected to that man, wasn't he?

Until she figured it out or was forced to talk to the crimson-eyed boy, she'd just have to keep pretending not to remember a thing about Orochimaru... nor him.

/

"What do you mean?" asked the blue-skinned man.

"The leader didn't give me many details I could share with you." replied Itachi. "But he specified I have to do this mission alone."

Kisame kept quiet for a couple of seconds. It was very rare for an Akatsuki member to g on a solo mission; but the shark man had assignments of this kind once or twice, so it didn't really surprise him.

"Oh? I wonder what could Pein be so secretive about." he said. "I only hope he doesn't make me stay here without doing a thing while you're having fun somewhere else."

"I don't think he will. It won't be long before we begin to seal the Bijūs, therefore, we'll have much activity around." replied the Uchiha. "Besides, he still has some of his attention on her..."

"Ah, yes..." Kisame hadn't thought much about the girl since they arrived to the base; in fact, he hadn't thought about anything at all. He felt tired, but he wasn't aware of why. He hadn't done anything unusual, and doubted the few extra weight on he carried on their way back influenced on him at all.

Perhaps it would be better to rest for a while.

Itachi informed him he was leaving, and Kisame headed towards his room.

On his way, he saw that Liv's door was half-opened, revealing the sleeping girl inside. He wasn't the only exhausted one after all. The blue-skinned man wondered if Kakuzu took much to heal her... Kisame would have been just as pissed as the old man when he found he had to cure the damn kid, if he was in his place.

He arrived to his room and laid on the bed, becoming fast asleep.

[...]

He disregarded the discrete knock on the door, trying to gain a few more minutes if sleep. Nothing could be so important to make him rise so early.

Another knock on the door. Kisame just turned a proceeded to ignore the sound.

"Excuse me" said a female voice, as he heard the doorknob turn.

The blue-skinned man mentally groaned. "What the hell do you want?"

"My, you're definitely not a morning person." replied Liv in an upbeat tone. "I'm sorry I had to wake you up, but the leader wants to see us."

"_Us_?" repeated the shinobi. The girl just shrugged.

"That's what Konan said. Anyway, I'll be getting ahead. We'll wait for you."

She closed the door once again.

"Don't tell me Pein wants me to go on a mission with _her._" thought Kisame as he got dressed. That would be something he wouldn't forgive the Akatsuki leader for in a long time.

As soon as he was presentable, he exited the room.

/

Hidan wasn't precisely the person she would've liked to encounter so early, yet there he was, lying down, covered in blood beside the stairs. "What on earth is he doing?" she thought. There was too much blood to be his own; if it was, he'd be more than dead, but she preferred not to ask, no matter what he was supposed to be doing on the ground. Luckily, he was too distracted with his prayers to notice her pass through... or so she thought.

"Don't you dare place a fucking foot in there." he warned, just as she was about to go past him.

"In case you haven't noticed, you're in the middle of the way." She replied, rising an eyebrow.

"Does it look like I give a shit?"

"Certainly not. But why did you choose this particular place?"

"I didn't"

"What?"

"I have to do a ritual every day at this hour. Doesn't matter where I am."

Ritual?

Until now, she hadn't paid attention to the necklace he was wearing. "Oh, great. A jashinist." she unconsciously muttered her thoughts.

"You got a fucking problem with that, bitch?" he said in a murderous tone. To be honest, Liv didn't feel like dealing with the albino. He was just… too loud most of the time; she was aware that she could be somewhat loud herself, but this man's temper was explosive, and his choice of vocabulary got irritating once in a while. "Kakuzu at least takes a grip of his impulses..." thought the woman to herself.

"I wouldn't have a problem with it if I didn't have to use the stairs."

"Well you're going to wait until I'm finished, so you can either stand there like an idiot or get the fuck off." he replied nonchalantly.

"I don't have time for this." she said, walking ahead.

"Just what do you think you're doing, cunt?" The younger man quickly stood up and grabbed her arm. What came after was equally surprising for both of them; Liv felt a warmth in her arm that she hadn't felt in long time, as her skin engrossed the man's chakra. It was a matter of seconds before the jashinist let her go.

"What the hell was that?" he hissed, glaring at the kunoichi.

Liv was completely estranged for a moment. That wasn't supposed to happen. Why now? How?

"Answer me, bi…"

"Would you please be quiet for a damn second?"

The sudden concern in her voice seemed to make the shinobi hesitate before saying anything else.

The hazel-eyed girl closed her eyes.

"Where is it...?"

No matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to find the seal inside of her.

"Where the hell is it?"

"What's with you two? I thought Pein wanted to see us ASAP, kid." said Kisame's voice, bringing her back to the outer world.

"It's gone!"

Both shinobis looked at her as if she was the strangest creature alive. "What the fuck/hell are you talking about?" they asked in unison.

"Where is Itachi?"

Kisame raised an eyebrow, staring right at her. "He just left for a mission." Liv let out a groan. "I have something to do. Tell the leader I'll be there in a moment."

With that, she started running towards the passages.

/

When Kisame arrived to the foot of the stairs, his eyes met Hidan and Liv, apparently in the middle of an argument. The former was lying on the floor, covered in blood; and the latter stood in front of him visibly annoyed by the jashinist's habits.

"I wouldn't have a problem with it if I didn't have to use the stairs." "Well you're going to wait until I'm finished, so you can either stand there like an idiot or get the fuck off." "I don't have time for this."

The girl started walking past him, and he quickly rose to his feet to stop her. "Just what do you think you're doing, cunt?" Hidan grabbed her arm, but retired it after a couple of seconds and yelled again. "What the hell was that?" No reply. "Answer me, bi.." "Would you please be quiet for a damn second?" She said, with a worried expression on her face.

"Pair of lunatics." thought the blue-skinned man, as he decided to approach them.

"What's with you two? I thought Pein wanted to see us ASAP, kid."

"It's gone!" She half yelled.

"This kid went crazier than she already was." thought the blue-skinned man. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Where's Itachi?" he raised an eyebrow. Why would she want to know that? Every time he was around, she would flinch and walk away as fast as she could. There must have been something between them; Itachi wouldn't have defended her if it wasn't the case, but as far as he could see, she was intimidated, or even scared of the younger shinobi. "He just left for a mission." the girl groaned. "I have something to do. Tell the leader I'll be there in a moment." Before he could say anything else, she ran away.

"That bitch is going nuts." remarked Hidan.

"Yeah."

Kisame left the jashinist alone with his rituals and headed upstairs.

"Where is she?" asked the Akatsuki leader, noticing Liv's absence.

"She was downstairs, the panicked about something being gone and walked away."

Pein stared at him, waiting for a better explanation. The shark man's mouth twitched slightly.

"She said she'd be here in a minute." he said, trying to brush off the amethyst-eyed man's expression. "What did you want from us?"

Pein leaned his forearms over the stone table, holding his hands in front of him. "I have a request for you, Kisame."

/

Liv rushed towards the rooms as fast as she could. If she only knew which one was Kakuzu's... She kept looking for his chakra, until he arrived to the door at the left of her room. She smacked her lips in annoyance: if she had known that was his room before, she would have started looking at that side of the corridor first. Why was she looking for him, anyway? Itachi had been the one who placed the mind-blocks over her. But he could know something about it, couldn't he? He was in there that night too... She had overheard Konan and Kisame speaking after they all came back from their missions, and for what they said Liv could assume they had known each other for a while... "It's not right no make conjectures about comments" she mumbled, brushing the thought off. At last, she concluded that she was looking for him because he was the "less dangerous" ninja that she could turn to at the moment. Of course, she still risked herself to get her head torn apart from her body; but Hidan probably didn't know a thing about mind seals, Kisame hated her more than anyone and she feared she could let something inconvenient slip to Konan or Pein. And Zetsu... he probably was the one she should have been most afraid of. The kunoichi wondered if she only saw the emerald-eyed shinobi as a viable alternative because he had been the one who kept curing her injuries. "Probably... but I'm already here..."

She quickly knocked on the door, but Kakuzu didn't answer.

"At least they could say 'go away' or something..." she thought. "One day I'll have an unpleasant surprise when opening their doors."

"Kakuzu" she called, as she turned the doorknob. The shinobi was sitting on his bed with his mask off, reading a book. He didn't even bother on looking up.

"What do you want? You should learn to knock a damn the door, kid." he said in a lightly irritated tone.

"I _did_ knock" She protested. "How many times do I have to say I'm not a kid?"

"Hn. Stop acting like one, then."

"Honestly, this guy..." thought Liv to herself. He didn't seem to be much older than she was either, so why did they insist on calling her like that?

"If you're just going to stand there, you might as well get out of here."

She could have sworn she heard him let out a sigh as she entered and closed the door behind her. She had noticed, the emerald-eyed man avoided her as much as he could, but she guessed it was the normal thing to do, but he did bother a lot avoiding her. The chocolate-haired girl stared at him for a moment. He didn't seem to have that imposing aura around him... It was as if she had captured his image in an extremely rare moment, when his features unwillingly relaxed a little.

"I was wondering what happened that time..."

"I'd appreciate if you were more specific."

Liv kept quiet for a couple of seconds. She wouldn't be telling him much if she talked about the seal, would she? It would have been easier if Itachi was around... he must have known about the seal already anyway.

"Listen, I don't feel the slightest desire to speak to you. If you're just going to ask pointless questions, get the hell out; I am tired."

In that moment, she had a little mind click.

"You were in my mind that night."

"Hm?"

"The night I woke up here..."

"What about it?"

"What did you do in my mind that night?"

"I believe that's not hard to figure out, is it? I woke you up" he said, turning the page of the book. It was more than evident, that he disliked her presence; but since he knew she wouldn't simply walked away, he chose to ignore her as much as possible.

"But how?"

"Why are you so interested all of a sudden?"

"You did something chakra-control prevention seal."

"Wow, your assumption skills are fucking impressive. You truly are aware of the condition of you body" he said sarcastically, making her frown.

"I was startled, ok? And I think you need to spend some time away from Hidan. You're starting to sound like him."

Kakuzu didn't reply, but Liv could tell by his eyes, that he agreed.

"What did you do to it?"

"I removed it." he replied, probably wondering if she would ever go away.

This caught her by surprise; she hadn't noticed it, but then again, she had only had some kind of physical contact with Kakuzu and Kisame, and she couldn't have noticed it under the circumstances.

"Do you know how to place it back again by any chance?"

Kakuzu turned the pages of his book again. "No."

Liv groaned once again. This was no good.

"Well, shit..."

"Do you depend on it that much?"

"Yes! And I don't know any way to place it back on. If you had only deactivated it..."

"I'm not an expert in seals, kid. I only know how to remove them. If you yell again, I'll sew your mouth with your vocal chords. Do you understand?"

Liv could only let out a sigh. "Does Itachi know about mind seals?"

"Only about psychological ones, as far as I know."

"There you are." A voice at the door interrupted them. Liv turned around to find Kisame, standing just outside the room.

"When did he open the door?" she thought.

"The leader wants me to train you." He said, slightly drawling in an annoyed tone. "Let's go outside and finish this quick."

Liv didn't say a thing. Kakuzu must have seen distress on her face, because he let out a small, irritated sigh and turned to her.

"Sasori might know how to help you. Talk to him once he comes back."

"Thank you." she muttered, before following Kisame away from the room.

"Who the hell is Sasori?" she thought. "Guess I'll have to ask Kisame later..." The shark man didn't say a thing, but she could feel his curious gaze upon her. It worried her to know there was a chance he could have heard more than enough, but she would figure how to cover it of necessary... hopefully.


End file.
